Ayame's Chronicles
by Taka67
Summary: Well it starts with a young little viximon getting lost in the human world, finding a tamer and confronting the very being who sent her away ... hopefully the story seems better than the summary. it says romance for attention and M for the language XD
1. Mysterious Creature

Disclaimer: I own no digimon v.v but i call dibs on the humans o.o

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Takami Kusajiki was a typical high school student. His life was a simple one: go to school, go home and look into personal interests. A pretty normal life. His life would be a lot better in school if he didn't have a certain obsession. Although he kept to himself he was constantly harassed by other students for his obsession of Digimon. Yeah, Digimon. It had been over twenty years since the last of the DATS incidents, so children of this generation of children were mostly convinced that they don't exist outside of a card game. Takami, being 15, gave Digimon the benefit of the doubt and spent a lot of time researching them. At first he wanted to just confirm their existence. But before he noticed, his curiosity had turned into a dedicated obsession.

Every day he hurried home just to learn more about Digimon: the myths the facts, the sightings. He wanted to know it all. Unfortunately he could not get that much from his resources, since most were unreliable sightings and vague descriptions. Despite this, Takami is still searching for any facts on them, whenever he is not in school.

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Today was The Monday, not just any old Monday, THE Monday. Today was Takami's last Monday as a freshman for the year. He was looking forward to the free time that the summer provided; it just that getting to it was a problem. The last week of school is when all seniors get wily and do as they please to the lower classmen, and guess who was their prime target?

Takami was just walking to his 2nd period class with his books in hand. Before he knew it, his shoulder and the lockers next to him got a lot closer. "Hey Digi-_nerd_, guess what today is?" a senior in a group of laughing ones called out.

Takami just picked up his dropped belongings and responded, "I do believe its Monday. You didn't forget again, did you? It's not that hard to remember the days, ya know." He then smirks and continues onto his class, "There's this new invention called 'calendars', try finding one." Indeed, Takami was a bold one. Smart-mouthing off to a group of seniors' means either beat down or stuffing into a locker. Luckily for Takami, he was prepared.

"Oh, a comedian, eh?" Well I got a joke for you, and here's the _punch_ line!" the same senior said as he charged at Takami, to avoid embarrassment form his peers and inner pride. Takami just shrugged and did a pivot on his right foot, turning him out of the senior's way, the delivers a small but strong side kick to the senior's side, sending him off balance and into a mop bucket, left by a janitor who left their job unfinished.

"Two things wrong with that: 1. Jokes come _before_ the punch line and 2. Your punch line had no kick, so I added some for you," Takami laughed as he continued walking to his class leaving the group of seniors stunned. Before he picked up Digimon, Takami took a bit (8 years *cough*) of mixed martial arts, so dealing with any physical onslaught would be child's play for him. He arrives in his biology class and took a seat next to a window and proceeded to stare out vacantly into the school yard, counting down the moments until the end of another school year.

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Finally, the end of 3rd period arrives, and Takami is released to lunch. Takami grabs his lunch from his locker and proceeds out of the school courtyard. He walks into the orchard the gardening club planted 2 years ago, which had bathed the ground in speckled sunlight and shadows. Perfect for lounging without getting too hot. He sat down, and opened up his first sandwich and took a bit as he looked around. His normal spot always made his day a little better since it was quiet and empty… well, mostly empty. A bush rustles faintly in the distance, snapping Takami out of his trance.

He quickly gathered up his lunch and proceeded to the area where the sound had originated from. When he peered over a small bush, he saw a fox… he thought. The fox wasn't like a normal fox. The body was more elliptical with shorter limbs, longer ears and a smaller neck. It was also a strange color; yellow for most of its fur and white on the tips of its paws, ears and tail. It was something had never seen before.

"What kind of fox is that?" Takami thought to himself. The startled creature picked up on his voice and turned to him. It did not flee at first, it just stared at him. "Um… hello there little-" he said before it scurried off into more bushes. "… Okay, um bye I guess…" he said as he proceeded back to his typical spot, wondering what that creature was. In all his research, Takami has never actually SEEN a picture of a Digimon. But whatever he saw was no animal of this world.

The next day, Takami returned to his same spot but there was no reappearance of the strange little fox-like creature. 'Maybe I'm just imagining things…' he thought as he sat down to eat his lunch again. Little did he know that he was being watched. A certain pair of blue eyes was watching him with intense curiosity from the dark shadows about 20 feet away.

End of Chapter 1

R&R all =D my first published writing ever ^^


	2. Contact!

Disclaimer: I own no digimon v.v but i call dibs on the humans o.o

Wednesday was very dull, being the last day of finals for the year. Takami proceeded out to his spot in the orchard, lying down with his lunch bag next to him. He closed his eyes and let the warm sunshine lull him into a half-sleep. His bag was left partially open, enticing a certain creature to emerge from the blushes, sniffing eagerly at the contents. The creature was slightly perplexed at the aluminum foil around Takami's sandwich and had much difficulty removing it with only stubby paws. The quiet, but constant crinkling sound from the foil caused Takami to open his eyes and see a yellow fluffy tail wagging continuously from his bag.

The creature then drags the sandwich out of the lunch bag, pawing at it and clearly frustrated. Now gnawing at the foil, trying to get the delicacy within, Takami turns his head to the side slightly to watch. It soon stopped fiddling with the wrapping and circled around the pre-wrapped sandwich, wondering what to do. Takami reaches into his bag and pulls out a second sandwich and unwraps it silently, not breaking eye contact with the frustrated creature. As he takes out the sandwich, the creature's nose twitched when it picked up the scent of exposed food. The creatures gaze slowly locked onto Takami and stared with fear and apprehension in its eyes and crouched back.

"Do you want a piece?" Takami asked as he broke part of it and placed it on the ground about three and a half feet away from him and looked at the creature in a nonthreatening way. After about five minutes, the creature timidly walked towards the sandwich, still staring at Takami. It then reaches the sandwich and breaks eye contact and starts eating the sandwich in small quick nibbles. Once it's done it looks back up at Takami, then to the other wrapped sandwich it couldn't open.

Takami had a good guess of what it wanted and unwrapped the second sandwich, then handed it over. The creature happily accepted it and ate it as well, now adding a slight wag to its tail. Once it was done, Takami had already packed up the rest of his lunch and stood up, leaving the now-full little creature slightly confused. "I'll bring more tomorrow, if you're still around," he said as he waved at the creature, going back to his classes. 'Least I know I'm not crazy anymore .'

Thursday had finally arrived! Yes, nothing better than a Thursday. Nothing to look forward to but the relaxing freedom of a Friday and the glorious weekend that followed it! Takami's school was having a free day since the teachers have pretty much stopped working and focused crowd control. He made his way back out to the orchard and surprisingly found the creature sitting patiently on the side of the path. At the sight of him, the creature's tail picked up to a slight wag of happiness.

"Hope I didn't keep you waiting too long," Takami said with a smile as he sat down in his usual spot, where the creature approached him. Its response to him seemed to have changed over the week. When he first spotted it, it was terrified of him. Then it slowly but surely started to lose that fear. Even now, there was hint of doubt in its approach, but it was a big improvement from three days ago. "I bought you your sandwich," he said as he searched through his lunch bag and unwrapped a sandwich. Before he had a chance to put it down, the creature was actually nibbling it happily while he held it! Takami was slightly surprised but was happy that he earned its trust. The creature finished off the sandwich and then sat back, licking its paw and wiping the crumbs from its face.

"I see you really like sandwiches," he said as he was reaching for something to drink.

"…Thank you…" a small voice squeaked. Takami was startled and looked around for the source couldn't find out what said it. All he could see was himself and the little creature. 'Oh dear god, I'm a skitzo D;'

"Down here…" the small voice squeaked. Takami looked down at the creature who was staring up at him. "I said thank you…"

"Holy crap, you can talk?" Takami said with a surprise and interest in his eyes. The little creature nodded.

"Yes I can. Quite well actually…"

"How come you haven't said anything before?"

"I was a little nervous."

"Nervous, huh? Well do you have a name?"

" My name is..." it paused for a moment, looking away then back up at him," Viximon. Who are you?"

"Viximon?" Takami pondered at this time like he had heard it somewhere before. "Well my name is Takami, and I was wondering if there are any more of you?"

"Tons. It's just that all Viximon stay in the daycare. Somehow I wound up this orchard soon after I was hatched…"

Takami's mind froze up for a second. 'There are more of the same creatures…? Daycare? _This_ world…" His mind starting putting the pieces together and then he asked one more question, "What exactly _are_ you?"

Viximon just stared at him, like his question was silly and giggled. "I'm a Digimon. Isn't that obvious? I mean I don't look like a normal fox, do I?

The first thing that came to Takami's mind was shock, then excitement, then curiosity. "A Digimon? So they are real!"

"Of course Digimon are real. What made you think we weren't?" Viximon said, looking slightly confused.

"Well… it's just that none have been seen in such a long time, that a lot of the current people actually believed they weren't real! Oh man, this is so cool!" The excitement came out first. He started flailing his arms all anime-like. Realizing he looked like an idiot, he regained his composure, clearing throat.

Viximon giggled again. "Are all humans this strange?"

"Only some of them," he said with a smile. Then another question popped into his head. "Wait… If you're a Digimon, does that make me a Digi-destined?"

"Digi what? Never heard of it before."

"Um, okay. I'm also wondering where you've been staying all this time."

Viximon looked down slightly and the wag in its tail stopped. "Well I materialized in the middle of this orchard. I haven't really thought to leave. It reminds me a lot of my old home back in the Digital World…." Takami just stared at the little Digimon as it continued. "I'm still young, so I haven't had any experience venturing away from home…"

Takami looked down for a moment pondering something then looked at Viximon again. "Hey, why don't you sta-"

Viximon cut him off, "I can't bring myself to leaving quite yet."

"How come?"

"I haven't really trusted humans. Not yet anyways…" Viximon then turns away and scurries into the bushes.

End of Chapter 2

Totally not a one shot =) R&R!


	3. Building bonds

Disclaimer: I own no digimon v.v but i call dibs on the humans o.o

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Friday, the last day of school. End of the school year; always on an exciting time. With no planned activities other than pranks, revenge, and last minute romance. Teachers have pretty much given up on crowd control and just sat around watching. Unfortunately, seniors were about to leave with a bang.

Takami decides to take advantage of the chaos and pays a visit to his little foxy friend before school lets out. He walks out to the orchard waiting by a bush. "Hello again, Viximon" he said with a pant from his fevered walking.

"Hello Takami," it replied fwith a wag of the tail. "Um… what's with that noise around these grounds?"

"Last day of school before summer."

"Is that important or something…?"

"Well it's the last day we come here for a while."

Viximon's tail hesitated in wagging for a moment, accompanied by a hint of sfadness in its voice, "last day?"

"Yeah, everyone's going crazy too! It's nearly a riot out!"

"So it's _really_ your last day…?" Viximon repeated.

Takami nods then stands up, "I know the perfect way to spend it!" He said as he had ran back into the school to get something. Viximon crawled back under a bush and lays down with a slightly sad grunt.

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Now back to the chaos. Juniors and seniors have started doing stupid stunts (basically breaking, vandalizing or smashing anything they could). The latest one: launching things off the roof with a slingshot. One senior boy picked the lock to some random gothic kid's locker (already cleaned out of anything valuable) and found a lighter. "This oughta fly far!" a junior with a slingshot said. The junior pulled back the slingshot and let it fly, far.

The lighter soared through the air from the looting miscreants. It soon disappeared from sight and landed somewhere in the orchards. The lighter landed on a medium sized rock and cracked open, making a spark flare up the exposed lighter fluid. A smile flame developed and steadily grew larger from all the burnable vegetation.

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Takami was busy walking through the crowds of students, being careful not to drop his lunch he prepared for himself and Viximon. He finally broke free of all the students and made it out of the side entrance. He started walking back to the orchard but noticed some smoke coming from the center of it, and the flock of fleeing student screaming randomly about a fire.

Takami's eyes widened, instantly thinking of what could have happened to Viximon. He sprinted towards the source of the flames, fire extinguisher in hand. After arriving to the beginning of the blaze, he started spraying a wide path looking for what looked like a fox's den. He continued looking and looking. No luck. Trees fall. Bushes crackled. Then when Takami thinks it may be too late, he hears tiny panting and coughing from over a fallen tree.

Takami immediately started running towards its source and ended up nearly stepping on Viximon, who have gotten boxed in by large fallen trees. Takami sprayed the flames of one downed tree and climbed over it only to find a fainted Viximon. He picked it up and raced over to the opposite side of the orchard, where there was no fire.

The fire department arrived soon after and extinguished the fire, leaving only scalded trees and barren bushes. Takami laid Viximon down on a large boulder to catch its breath in a clearing. His panic level lowered as Viximon's breathing stabilized while it rested. He sat there patiently until it slowly woke up around 45 minutes later.

Viximon sat up and looked around confused. "Am I …*cough* dead…?"

Takami spoke up, "Nope, welcome back to the realm of the consciousness.

Viximon turned to him with a shocked look. Hid clothes were signed on the edges, but not burnt. His face was covered in a light layer of ash and dirt from climbing all the debris while escaping the fire. His hands were also covered in ash. He looked a mess. "Takami! H-how did you- how did _I…_-"

"I brought you here so you wouldn't get burned or suffocate," he said with a grin on his face.

"B-but what if you got hurt?!"

"And what if I didn't try?"

Viximon sits back down on its rock and sights slightly and looks over to Takami. "Humans are such odd creatures… Well anyways, thank you for saving my life, Takami. Although it's too bad my home is kinda… scorched now-"

"It will be a pleasure to have you in my home!" Takami said with a wider grin then starts picking up the remains of his belongings. "In fact, we can pretty much leave now."

"What about school?"

"Got cancelled early because of a fire. Now let's get going before a crowd blocks our way." He then opened up an empty bag towards Viximon.

Viximon tilted its head slightly at the bag, "what's that for?"

"I can't just go strolling around down the street holding a Digimon, now can I?"

"That is a very good point," Viximon said after hopping happily into Takami's bag, pointing its nose towards an opening in his bag.

"Now it's a 20 minute walk to my home so make you comfortable," He continued as he walked out of the school grounds and through the parking lot. "By the way Viximon, I have a question."

"And it would be?"

"Are you a boy Viximon or a girl Viximon? Or do Digimon even _have_ genders?"

"Of course Digimon have genders, well most of them anyways. And I'm a girl Viximon." Viximon said with a smile. "Why?"

"Just to get my pronouns straight," Takami said happily.

"What's a pronoun…?"

"…I'll explain that later," Takami said with a slight sweat drop.

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After walking home with Viximon in bag, Takami then greeted his two neighbors, Suri and Rua. Suri was the house to the left, and Rua lived parallel to Takami across the street. Suri could be described as a 5'5'' 15 year old girl. A fair complexion and black hair. Normally she wore either half-baggy clothes or jeans, making her somewhat of a tomboy. Rua looked more like a 5'9'' 15 year old boy. He spent a lot of time outside, mostly because his parents _made_ him go out so much, but nonetheless, was an extroverted thinker. Both where optimistic thinkers though, thus making them be able to get along with Takami so well.

As Takami approached his house, Suri was also arriving home at the same time. Both were tired from their last days of school, so she simply smiled and waved over to Takami before going inside. Takami returned her gesture and went inside his home as well. Takami had always watched out for Suri, since her parents were older, yet she was away a lot.

Takami went up to his room and opened the bag Viximon was in and let her out. Viximon first arched her back then proceeded to walk around to stretch out her legs on his bed. "Well that ride was less fun than I thought. Too many books squishing me." She then makes the face of pretending to be squished.

Takami smiled and laughed at her expression. "Fine, I promise to get more comfy bags in the future. Is that okay?"

"Very much, yes," Viximon chirped happily while taking a seat on his spinning computer chair. The chair actually rotating from her leap onto it startled her, but then got used to the spinning. "I like this chair."

"So do I," Takami said as he lifted her up to sit down in his chair, then sat her gently onto his lap. "Better?"

Viximon laid down and rested comfortably then yawned and said, "Yeah…~"

"Now to decide on where you're gonna sleep!" Takami added.

"Anywhere is good enough for me. I don't want to take up much space."

"You could sleep on my bed, with me? It's the warmest place in here at night."

Viximon blinked at first, then blushed lightly under her fur. "I don't want to intrude-"

"Nonsense! I insist!" Takami said with a wide grin.

Viximon sighed and smiled tiredly. "If you say so."

"Glad you see it my way. Now what do you want to do for dinner?"

Viximon's ears twitched and her nose wiggled at the word 'dinner'. "SANDWICHES?!"

"… You DO realize there's more than just sandwiches that taste good?"

Viximon gasped. "There's MORE?!"

Takami places her down on his bed and walks downstairs to the kitchen. "Wait here for now. I think I can whip up a little something."

Viximon stayed in his room, wandering around and browsing his various items he left on the floor. She crawled under his bed only to find more clothes. After finally escaping the eternal maze of 1000 dirty shirts, she crawled back up to his bed and laid there, enjoying the softness. 'This is _so~_ much better than leaves, grass and twigs!' After ten minutes of rolling around on Takami's bed, Viximon caught the scent of a food she has never smelled before. It reminded her of fish, but there were so many other things combined with it, it was practically begging her curiosity to come find out what it is.

So Viximon scurries down the stairs, following her nose until she came into the kitchen. There she found Takami at the stove, pouring some yellow-ish seasoning from a plastic container into a pot where the source of the scent was coming from. With her curiosity now ruling her mind, she climbed up to lay over Takami's shoulder and watch. "What is this delicious smell?!"

Takami was a little taken back from her sudden outburst. He thought Viximon was always the quiet type. "Well I took some tilapia fish, added garlic powder, pepper, seasoned salt and –" He then stopped as Viximon was focusing directly on the pot, panting slightly. She almost reminded him of a dog who wanted food. "And it will be ready in about 10 minutes."

Viximon snapped out of her trance and stared at him. "TEN MINUTES?! WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO FOR TEN MINUTES WHEN I CAN CLEARLY SMELL THE FOOD?! THIS IS TORTURE~!" Viximon climbed down from his shoulder and rolled around on floor for dramatic effect.

Takami only laughed at her reaction. "Calm down it's not that big a deal."

----------------------------10 eternal minutes later-----------------------

Viximon was circling Takami's feet frantically, excited about this new exotic food she was about to eat. He opened the pot he left to simmer and the smell of his well-seasoned efforts filled the room. Viximon nearly wanted to jump straight into the pot and start eating, but she restrained herself. Takami prepared her a bowl and then made one for himself, then went back up to his room. Viximon was right on his heels, excited about her first real human world meal. Takami placed her bowl down on his bed then started eating some of his own.

Viximon hopped up to her bowl urgently and took another sniff of the fish before taking a small bite. Her eyes nearly teared up. It was the most delicious thing she had ever tasted in her life! Then she started taking larger bites, eager to getting more and more. Takami watched her reaction. "Is it really _that_ good?"

Viximon turned to him and nodded eagerly. "It's the most wonderful thing I've ever tasted…~" she said with pure bliss and laying on her side, contently full.

"Glad you like it." Takami smiled and returned downstairs to preserve the rest in the refrigerator for later. By the time he came back up, Viximon was now walking in circles on his bed, trying to get comfortable. "It's getting pretty late now," he said after looking out the window. "How bout we go to sleep for the night?"

Viximon yawned. "Sleep would be very good right now…~"

Takami went to his bathroom to change into a shirt and shorts then climbed into bed. Viximon then crawled onto his collar bone and curled up into a little yellow ball. Takami then pulls up his blanket to cover both of them. "Good night, Viximon."

Viximon smiled up at him. "Good night, Takami." Then closed her eyes as Takami turned off his light and laid back onto his pillow.

end of chapter 3

Nu more chapters ftm until i write some more, blah to school ...


	4. Training time

Behold! The next chapter!!! Now read, read i say :D Muahahahahahaha-cough-

Viximon: What he meant to say was he owns nothing in digimon o-o'

Takami: Told him not to evil laugh like that *nearly gets smited*

Me: I may not own digimon, but i surely own you i made you and i can break you o.

Takami: I'll be good T_T

Me: I thought so -.-

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The next morning, Takami awoke first. He glanced at his clock as it read 8:54 am. Then he sat up and took a deep breath while opening the window next to his bed. 'Ah, the first of many summer Saturdays. I love the smell of Saturday in the morning. But… not as much as the smell of a Saturday afternoon…' Takami took Viximon off his stomach and placed her gently on his pillow as he got up.

After Takami went through his little morning routine, he went downstairs and started making waffles and bacon. Back upstairs, Viximon was still asleep, but her nose picked up on the scent of something being made and started sniffing. The rest of her body slowly woke up after her nose. She jumped off the pillow, nearly stumbling off as her left back leg nearly sunk into it. 'Glad no one was here to see that…' she thought with a sweat drop before hopping downstairs to the kitchen.

Takami was taking the last waffle off the waffle iron and placing it on a plate before spotting Viximon staring at the plate of waffles. Takami smirked after taking the bacon out of the microwave and said, "Someone's hungry."

Viximon jumped up to his shoulder. "What's all this?!" She was staring down hungrily at the pancakes and bacon. 'This world is full of surprises!'

Takami set two plates down then poured syrup over the waffles and sat down at the table, followed by Viximon hopping on the table. She began eagerly sniffing and nibbling the waffles before eating eagerly.

Time skip to after waffle genocide-

Viximon lay happily on her back, contently full. Takami just put the last plate away into his cabinet after drying it. Then sat down and poked Viximon's stomach, which made her squeak in surprise and flail her legs, trying to get up. Takami laughed, "Glad you enjoyed breakfast. Now what shall we do for the rest of the day?" Viximon opened her mouth to say something. "And don't say eat." Viximon returned her mouth to the closed position.

Viximon then shrugged. "Then how bout we go and train then, o' fox of 1000 stomachs?"

Viximon giggled slightly. "Was that some attempt to be funny?"

"Apparently it worked. So I was thinking we could start training some of your battle abilities. I mean you are a Digimon after all."

Viximon sat down and started thinking. "Well I do have this one move I could use, but I have to warn you: I've had no practice."

Takami got an excited face. "Alright! First day of training!" He then slowly looks down. "Come to think of it… I should put on some clothes first…" After running upstairs and coming back down wearing a dark blue t-shirt and jeans. His shirt had the icon of a Digi-vice wrapped in a silver aura. Viximon stared at the shirt.

"Where'd you get that shirt from? It's very interesting."

"You remember Suri from yesterday right? She made it for me. Suri's quite the artist ya know!"

Viximon blinked at the comment. "Does this Suri like Digimon as well?

Takami looked up and thought, "Well she certainly doesn't hate it, probably still do. Suri, Rua and I used to love it. I just so happened to keep interest in it."

Viximon nodded then leapt off the table and wandered around until she found the door. "Well let's get to training!"

Takami nodded then got his bag and Viximon hopped in. Then he thought of possible secluded training locations.

After twenty minutes of walking through the cool summer morning, Takami arrived at the entrance of an old scrap yard. The city didn't bother fencing it up since it wasn't really noticeable to the public. He took Viximon out of his bag and placed her gently on the ground next to him.

Viximon looked around at the new surroundings and tilted her head. "How come you picked this place?" Takami then smiled.

"No one comes here anymore and this was a place meant for things to be broken even more. Now what exactly can you do in terms of combat?"

Viximon got a proud look on her face. "First of all I can use these fangs of mine to give you a pretty mean bite!" Takami sweat-dropped.

"Is that all?"

Viximon arched an eye. "Something wrong with biting? I could snap a human's leg in 2, provided I wanted to."

"Okay I take that statement back. Anything else?"

Viximon said nothing but rose to her feet and started walking towards Takami. "Uh, Viximon? What are you do-"

Viximon then yelled, "Poison Shard!" and opened her mouth wide. In a split second, Takami caught a glimpse of a sharp looking projectile forming in front of her mouth. But the crystal was cloaked in a purple-ish aura of unknown substance. Before Viximon fired, Takami moved out of the way. Viximon fired her attack at a car that was behind Takami, to the left of him. The purple-ish aura came in contact with the car first. Takami's eyes widened after watching the effect of the aura. 'The car… is melting?! Just from that purple stuff?' The shard itself then split the top of the car in half, causing sparks to fly out. When one of the sparks came in contact with the purple aura, it ignited and caused an explosion.

The only remains of the car after the explosion was the rusty (now torched) frame of which only held half a car along with four flat tires. Takami was speechless and stared at the car before Viximon spoke up. "Poison shard, a convenient little attack of mine. The purple stuff you saw around it was a highly corrosive chemical I can form in my mouth. And the shard came from the minerals around me and concentrated into a shard projectile covered with my poison. If the poison doesn't get you, the shard will, as it is formed with enough pressure to make what you humans call a diamond. The explosion is just a bonus; it turns out that my poison is highly flammable, so sparks or heat made it even more useful. Is that enough for you?" Viximon turned to Takami with a victorious smirk.

Takami sprang up and started flailing is arms in an anime-like fashion. "THAT WAS AWESOME!!! I'VE NEVER SEEN A DIGIMON'S ATTACK UP CLOSE BEFORE!!!!!"

Viximon sweat-dropped at his reaction. "Um, Takami?" Takami then stops and clears his throat to regain his composure.

"Sorry about that. But that was very impressive. You're still at an In-Training level, but already are quite strong!" Viximon giggled at his comment, enjoying the praise on her skills.

"Thank you, but I can get even stronger if I just practice it more. Didn't have a lot of space when I was in that garden place at your school."

Takami nodded. "That's why we came here! Now let's see it again, but this time work on your aim a little more… Don't want to be caught in the cross fire ya know?"

Viximon smirked, "You thought I was actually going to hit you? My marksmanship is top-notch, so you won't get hit… unless you're my target."

Takami felt a little uneasy at her mind games before speaking up. "Sorry I ever doubted you."

Viximon smiled at him, then jumped on his shoulder to lick his cheek. "It's okay. Remember to have faith in Digimon. That's how we surpass others in battle, from the faith of our human partners."

Takami nodded but then looked a little confused. "I thought you said that you made that poison stuff in your mouth. How come I'm not melting or something?"

Viximon giggled again before leaping off his shoulder onto the ground. "I only make it when I either bite an opponent or use that attack. Otherwise it's just a normal Viximon mouth." She opens her mouth for emphasis.

Takami smiled and then said, "Back to training for us then!"

End of chapter 4

Now read and review or viximon gets it! o.O

Viximon: gets... what o-o

Me:... Shut up DX


	5. Awakening of the Vixen

Double whammy day! yep, two chapters in one day :O

Now read :D and dont forget to review and tell your friends!

Disclaimer: I own no digimon v.v but i call dibs on the humans o.o

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After three days of training in the secluded junkyard, Takami noticed the improvement in Viximon's abilities. Thanks to practice, Viximon's Poison Shard increased in power, not only in slicing a car completely in half, but also corroding the metal the aura came in contact with, and finally causing an explosion with only a few pieces of scrap left, but totally unidentifiable. Viximon smiled happily at her latest target, smoldering on the ground.

"Wow Viximon, you sure have gotten powerful. Not bad for a three day's work." Takami said as he got up from a crushed cube of a car he was sitting on. "If we ever run into some other Digimon, I bet you'll have no problems taking them down!"

Viximon sat down to rest for a moment, enjoying his comments. "Not all Digimon are old rusty stationary cars, you know."

Takami gave her a wide grin. "Yeah, I know but still. And who knows, maybe there is some sort of Rusty-old-car-mon out there!"

Viximon giggled and then her ears perked up slightly, turning her head off to the left. Takami looked confused and asked, "Is there something wrong?"

Viximon continued staring to her left and then rose to her feet. "Are you _sure_ this place is deserted?"

Takami nodded, "Pretty sure…" All of a sudden, a scrap mountain a few yards off shifted loudly, as if the base had been disturbed. Viximon looked at Takami. "Should I go check it out?"

"I think we should both go, just in case." He then started walking warily towards the base of the disturbance.

Viximon and Takami finally were around a corner from the scrap mountain. They peeked around the corner slightly only to find nothing. "That's weird, I'm sure it was around here somewhere…"

Suddenly, a medium sized pile of scrap parts tumbled over towards Viximon. Takami quickly scooped her up in his arms and ran to a safer spot before she was crushed. Viximon was breathing uneasily as Takami held her. The source of the tumbling parts from above then hopped in front of him. It appeared to be a circular creature with long appendages that appeared to serve as ears/arms. It was a dark violet in color with red eyes containing beady black dots in them.

Viximon leapt out of Takami's arms and took a defensive stance in front of him. "Takami, be careful! That Pagumon can be dangerous if it catches you off guard!" Takami blinked and started pondering something.

"Pagumon…? I've heard of it before! In-training data type, right? Viximon, I think it's about time to put that training to use."

Viximon nodded and locked her gaze on her opponent. It seemed to be grinning maliciously, after nearly causing them to be buried in scrap. Viximon warily started circling Pagumon, in order to pull its attention away from Takami. Once Pagumon's back (Or lack thereof) was toward Takami, Viximon took an offensive stance and then charged at it. Pagumon placed its ear-like appendages into the ground and flung itself at Viximon at an alarming speed. She quickly darted left to avoid a collision.

Takami called out to Viximon, "Viximon, and watch out for its ears! They may look simple but can pack quite a punch to ones who don't see it coming!" Viximon nodded internally as Pagumon flung itself at her again. This time instead of dodging completely, she actually leapt _over_ it and bit down on one of its ears. Pagumon was taken by surprise from it and started flailing its other ear around in an attempt to hit Viximon with it. She easily distanced herself from the other ear and gave Pagumon a powerful toss into the air, sending it flying towards a huge mountain of scrap.

Viximon took careful aim at the sailing Pagumon and finally yelled, "Poison Shard!" The projectile itself was larger than her, and was covered by the poisonous aura. Takami watched carefully to see if she hit her mark, only to see it aim too low. He thought that she just missed, but in actuality, it was all according to her plan. Just below Pagumon, it struck an extruding rusty iron pipe, scratching roughly against it and got a spark from it. The explosion took Pagumon by surprise and sent it flying towards the ground with the force from the explosion. It slammed roughly into the ground and tumbled, letting out a groan of defeat.

Takami ran over to Viximon who was wagging her tail happily in victory. "Viximon that was awesome! Never thought you would use Poison Shard as an indirect attack!"

Viximon smiled at him, "It was all in the heat of a battle. Made it up as I went."

Takami then looked over to what was thought to be a defeated Pagumon, but was perplexed. "Um Viximon, do Digimon always glow when they are defeated?"

Viximon shook her head, "No… wait…" She turned quickly to Pagumon who was indeed glowing. Instead of staying down, Pagumon rose back up and gave a quick roar before what looked like to be data surrounding it. "Oh this isn't good…"

"Why?! What's happening?!" Takami looked at Viximon for an answer.

"… Digivolution…" She said quietly. "Digi-what…?"

"It's Digivolving!" Viximon's eyes widened as Pagumon reappeared from the spherical blanket of data only to reveal a different creature. It was a short creature that seemed to be made of various rocks with a pair of eyes staring at them. "Gotsumon, a rookie. This isn't good."

Takami frowned slightly. 'Gotsumon, is a data type rookie. Now that it's made of stones, it has way more defense than beforehand putt on a bit of weight…' "I think you can still take him, Viximon."

Viximon looked warily up at Takami. "I don't know Takami… Now that's its digivolved, it's got all new abilities and way more defense!" Takami looked down at her firmly and said, "I've got faith in your abilities."

Viximon nodded then turned to face Gotsumon again. Gotsumon started running towards Viximon. 'Well it sure is slower than before,' and waited for it to get close before running off to the side, only to be surprised by several medium sized rocks flying at her, knocking the wind out of her and slamming into a car. 'REALLY wasn't expecting that…' Viximon looked up as the boulders that flew towards her return back to Gotsumon, reforming its arm. 'Now it attacks with its entire body…!' Viximon quickly shot off a poison shard, trying to catch it off guard. Gotsumon simply stared at the attack and held up its other hand, crushing her attack easily.

Viximon's face paled as her attack was done away with so easily. Gotsumon took advantage of her shock in order to launch its other arm at her while yelling, "Rock Shooter!" More of its composure slammed Viximon back into the car, causing her to actually go through it and slide into the ground, stopping after hitting a pile of crushed up car cubes. Viximon opened her eyes weakly to only see Gotsumon approaching her slowly. 'I'm sorry Takami… Guess I am not strong enough…"

Takami watched in desperation as his partner's doom approached her slowly. "Viximon! Get up!" She didn't move. Gotsumon only got closer and closer, gathering more rocks on its arm to form what looked like a club. Takami was at a loss of what to do. "VIXIMON!!!" Takami did the only thing he could, get Gotsumon away, by any means necessary. He charged at Gotsumon, raising his fist, only the thought of Viximon running through his mind at the moment. Takami may haven't noticed, but his fist had a faint odd blue aura surrounding it.

Takami didn't know what might happen if he did this, but he actually punched Gotsumon! He expected his fist to hurt terribly, due to his rock body. The exact opposite happened; Gotsumon actually went flying into a large pile of old pipes. He stared in disbelief of Gotsumon flying away then looked down at his hand. "What the heck…" Takami's fist was now covered in a visible blue digital-like fire. He was absolutely clueless as to what it was or how it got there.

Viximon slowly opened her eyes again to see why she was still here. She was speechless to see Takami standing in front of her and Gotsumon somewhere else. What really caught her attention was Takami's fist that was glowing. "T…Takami? What happened?" Viximon slowly rose to her feet, but fell back down.

Takami immediately turned to Viximon and helped her up. "You looked like you were in trouble, so I rushed in to help. First thing I could think of was punching it." As the blue aura came in contact with Viximon, she seemed as if a shock of energy shot through her entire being, feeling instantly revitalized beyond normal means. "Hey Viximon, what is this stuff anyways?" he asked while holding up his hand.

Viximon looked at his hand and just smiled. "I'll tell you later. For now, just sit back and watch. I think I just got an answer to how to end this." Leaving Takami confused, Viximon strode over to in front of where Gotsumon landed. Once Gotsumon got himself together (literally GOT HIMSELF TOGETHER. Takami screwed him up real bad XD), he started laughing at the thought of Viximon actually standing up to him again.

Viximon squinted her eyes in disgust as her opponent looked down on her. 'That's right, just keep on laughing. I'll see it how long it takes to wipe that smirk off your face.' Takami noticed that Viximon was faintly glowing of the same aura around his hand. He clenched his fist and the aura became stronger.

'As my desire for Viximon to be fine, this blue stuff gets stronger…' Takami thought. He then started willing for Viximon being able to win, somehow. Viximon felt another surge of energy go through her body and started glowing, just as Pagumon did. Gotsumon quickly stopped laughing and had an 'Oh crap…' look on its face.

Viximon was wrapped up by the blue digital aura surrounding her and internally thought, 'Digivolution…' Viximon first had a ring of code surround her abdomen, and then split into two, one going the opposite way of the other. As the two rings of code continued, she was then standing on her hind legs, her abdomen extending. The rings of code split yet again after reaching her tail, and legs. Her front pair turned into a pair of arms and the back became a pair of bipedal legs. Her tail grew longer as her head changed last.

Takami stared in amazement at the blue coding surrounding Viximon's transformation. He had no clue what she was doing, but he still watched nonetheless. The first thing he heard from the aura surrounding her was, "Renamon!" The shield of coding around her seemed to explode in all directions and revealed what she had changed into.

What stood in front of Takami was now a 5'9'' fox. She had purple gloves on her arm, a much longer tail and a well built form. On both her gloves and her thighs, there were yin-yang symbols. Takami was speechless as to what happened.

The new Digimon turned her head back to Takami and smirked. "Told you I had a plan on what to do. Pagumon digivolved to Gotsumon and I digivolved into Renamon." Renamon turned back to Gotsumon, who was now staring uneasily. "Don't be shy now. This'll only hurt for a second." Renamon leapt elegantly at Gotsumon, taking him by surprise as the increase in her speed was also noted.

Renamon gave a strong kick to Gotsumon's abdomen, sending it straight through three rusty old cars. After kicking, Renamon jumped high into the air. Gotsumon was just getting up from being sent flying yet again, only to be surprised yet again by Renamon's sudden appearance in front of it. Renamon leaned backwards as it shot off a couple rocks from its left arm. While leaning, she lifted one of her feet to deliver a rising kick to its chin, sending it high up into the air.

Renamon then crossed her arms over her chest. A light could be seen shining around her arms as she jumped in the air as well towards Gotsumon. Renamon opens her arms, releasing a few strands of her fur from her tuft of hair that went down from her neck to her stomach. She yelled, "Diamond Storm!" as each strand of fur straightened out and seemed to cover them with crystal and aimed towards Gotsumon in mid air. All the new crystals launched themselves at their target at once, overwhelming the still-forming Digimon. Upon contact with Gotsumon, each crystal exploded with half the normal impact of her previous Poison Shard, but made up power with numbers.

Gotsumon was pummeled repeatedly before poofing into sparkles of data that reformed into what looked like an abnormally large egg. Renamon landed and bowed towards Takami. "How was I?" Takami's face lit up as he went over to hug Renamon.

"That was awesome! Diamond storm is your best technique right?"

Renamon nodded, "Yes, it is. As a rookie, now I'm free to use all sorts of different fighting styles. But I'm not really talented in too many."

"You mean like martial arts? Maybe we could learn together then! I could even teach you a couple of things." Renamon smiled and nodded, then turned to the egg that once was Gotsumon. "So what should we do with the Digi-tama?"

"The egg thing? I guess we can just leave it here. It had to get here somehow so I guess it will get back-" The Digi-tama then started being surrounded by a yellow beam of light and vanished into thin air. "… Well that answers one question but raises so many more…"

"Yes, yes it does indeed… but there's nothing to be done about it now. Can we go home now, I'm getting hungry again." Takami smiles and nods, starting to leave the scrap yard with his new rookie partner.

After eating their fill of fried rice and sesame seed chicken (Which Renamon greatly enjoyed), Takami then turned over to Renamon. "Hey Renamon, I got a couple questions." Renamon awoke herself from the food coma she went into.

"What is it?"She asked while tilting her head slightly.

"What's your name?"

Renamon looked slightly confused. "My name is Renamon, but you know that already."

"Well, let me re-phrase that: Do Digimon gets different names than just what they are, like a nickname or something?"

Renamon tilted her head up in thought. "I suppose we could get names, but it just never occurred to us. What brought on that question?"

"I was wondering if you wanted a more… unique name than every other Renamon in the digital world," Takami said with a smile.

"I don't see why not. What you have in mind?"

"Well I was thinking, and I came up with this: Ayame. How's that?"

Renamon smiles and chirps happily, "Ayame, I love it!"

Takami smiled more, glad you like it, _Ayame._"

Ayame giggled happily at her new name. Later on they retire to sleep, but Takami takes the floor now, since Ayame is bigger than Viximon was, to her slight disappointment.

End of chapter 5

What will happen to Ayame and Takami? Will ayame ever stop eating? shall takami figure out that wierd thing he did before? **_FIND OUT ON THE NEXT DRAGON BALL Z!!!_**

Takami: *plays outro of Dragon Ball Z on guitar*

Ayame: Um guys... *whisper whisper*

Me: What do you mean i don't own the epic preview voice at the end of something?! T_T no fair... anyways Read and review *packs up briefcase to go to court for a certain catch phrase*


	6. Summer plans

Now lets hit a slower part in the story... for now =O

Disclaimer: I own no digimon v.v but i call dibs on the humans o.o

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Takami awoke the next morning covered by something furry laid on his chest. After he blinked a couple of times to clear his vision, he saw that it was Ayame who had crawled out of his bed and curled up next to him on the floor. He was ready to nearly yelp in surprise but then considered it kind of sweet. He looked around his room to find his clock, which read 10:41 A.M. 'Wow, we must have been more tired than we thought,' he said to himself and took a second look at his jeans he wore yesterday.

He sat up to get a better look at it, without disturbing Ayame. The pocket was glowing slightly. Takami carefully placed Ayame's head down on a pillow, which she snuggled into promptly. He dug into his pocket and pulled out an object that looked like a rounded triangle. It had blue around most of it with white surrounding the screen and buttons. He turned it around in his hands and saw a thin slot in the side of it. On the opposite side of the slot, there was a red button. The main part of this device had a screen at the top, and 4 buttons which seemed to form a paw print. Takami was utterly lost at what it was.

Ayame sensed that the pillow was nowhere near as warm as the one she chose last night and sat up, yawning. "Takami, what are you doing?"

Takami turned to her, slightly startled. "Sorry Rena- I mean, Ayame. I didn't mean to wake you up." Takami walks back over to Ayame and sits next to her. "But I found this weird thing glowing in my jeans pocket from yesterday. Any idea what it is?" He then hands Ayame the strange device he found.

Ayame quickly looked it over, turning it in her paws. "Clearly it's a digivice. And you mean to say you didn't see it in there yesterday?"

Takami shook his head, "Nope, I specifically remember that my pockets were empty before I took them off… Wait, so does this make me a Digi-destined?!"

Ayame shrugged, "I guess you can be whatever you want to. So what are we doing today and more importantly, what is for breakfast?"

"Is everything you think about food and training?" Takami laughed as he got up from the floor. Ayame giggled, "No, sometimes I think about a hyperactive boy I know of." Takami blushed slightly, 'I'm not hyperactive…! Am I?"

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When Ayame finishes her morning stretches, she scurries downstairs in hope of another delicious smell to come from the kitchen. Oddly, she was disappointed by the smell of nothing. "What happened to breakfast?!" Ayame said frantically as she looked around the kitchen, then ran into various rooms, thinking Takami hid it somewhere.

"We're out of food. A certain vixen-like Digimon I know of eats like a vacuum cleaner." Takami said after pulling his head out of a near-empty refrigerator. "But have no fears, I will get some take-out food. It's getting close to 11 so some businesses should be opening up." Takami slips on a t-shirt and shorts and picks up a phone. "How do you feel about pizza for breakfast?"

Ayame turned to him immediately. "Pizza?! Is it like sandwiches?!" Takami shook his head and laughed, "No, it's better than sandwiches." Takami left soon after ordering three boxes and Ayame fiddled with the digivice he found and wandered around the house.

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Takami returned home 30 minutes later, with two boxes of pepperoni, sausage and extra cheese pizzas. Ayame nearly tackled him when he entered. "I COULD SMELL THAT OVER A MILE AWAY! I WANT SOME NOW!!!" Ayame again struggled to open the box (she really isn't good with containers now is she?) before getting upset and anxious and used her claws to simply slice it open, cutting the pizza as well. "Take that, you foul inhibiter of my delectable!" She said proudly while eating her first slice of pizza from the defeated box, letting out a squeal of glee from the first bite. "I love this Pizza thing you have!"

Takami smiled and shook his head, 'Poor box never stood a chance…' "Well while you eat, I'm going to check the mail. Try not to eat it all before I get back."

Takami walked out of his house to his mailbox while stretching. He opened his mail box and found an unusual envelope. While walking back into his house, he turned it around over and over in his hands. The pattern on the envelope itself seemed oddly familiar. He returned to the kitchen to find one slice of pizza remaining and an Ayame lounging in 3 chairs put together, wagging her tail lazily.

"Well at least some pizza survived…" he said while wondering how she could eat so much in two minutes. Ayame turned around and smiled at him, "I liked the fish better, tasted more home made. Any mail?"

"Just this weird envelope," he responded while opening it and reading the title of the letter. "Izuru Summer Camp? … Looks like an invitation to an invite-only summer camp."

Ayame looked confused. "What's a 'Summer Camp'?"

"It's basically a place to leave kids for the summer. I usually go to them since I have nothing better to do. And I think we should go to this one."

"Why is that? Isn't staying home more fun?"

Takami walked over to Ayame and let her have a closer look at the stamp in the corner. Her eyes widened slightly as it had an almost exact copy of the shape of Takami's digivice. "I see … When do we leave?"

"It says the bus comes to pick… us? Up at 3:00 this afternoon. We'd better get packing in a little bit!"

Ayame nodded but then looked down, then looked back up at Takami. "I have a little favor to ask of you, Takami…"

"What is it…?"

Ayame looked as though she were trying to get her thoughts together. "Well I was wondering… if I could get some… clothes?"

Takami looked epically confused. "So all this time you run around in your fur and feel fine up until now?"

"My fur is fine, but you gave me a name to be different. I don't see any other Renamons running around in human clothes." Ayame flashed him a smile in order for him to cave.

"Trying to stand out in a digital crowd? Okay, why not? Let's go!"

"I don't think I should be out in public though… five foot fox humanoids don't just walk down the street every day, you know."

"I think I could figure out something…" Takami said with a smirk as he went into another room and came back with several measuring tapes.

"What are those for…?" Ayame asked nervously.

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One session of measuring later

Takami was writing down on a sheet of paper as he put the measuring tapes away, "That wasn't so bad, now was it?"

Ayame had a sort of dazed look as her ears twitched, "Can we not do that again? I have grown to dislike measuring," she replied with a sweat drop.

"No one likes it," Takami then walked towards the front door, "I'll be back in about thirty minutes."

Ayame nodded at him with slight confusion but then wandered around, trying to find something else to do.

Takami returned later carrying several bags of something when Ayame ran (more like leaped) down the stairs to greet him.

"Glad to see I was missed. Anyway, I got you something," he said with a smile and held up the bags.

"You got me bags?"

"No… I got you things _in_ the bags."

"And what would that be? IS IT FOOD?!"

"NO. IT'S NOT FOOD. You have a huge appetite by the way… inside these bags are clothes I got from a store nearby here. Felt kind of weird walking into a woman's section… got a couple of unwanted comments…"

Ayame perked up and then took the bags and started searching through them for something she liked, wagging her tail curiously while searching. Takami was trying to dodge the random clothes projectiles that flew out from her searching.

"Oooh! I like this one!" Ayame said as she held up a black and silver shirt with the words "_Foxy"_ written in Japanese on the back. "Now how exactly do I use it again?"

Takami's eye twitched at her comment, "Okay I'm going to tell you slowly so you can keep up," trying hard not to use sarcasm. "First, put the large opening over your head and bring it up through the small opening at the top. Then move your arms through the holes in the side."

Ayame didn't really notice his instructions as she figured it out on her own. "All done!"

"It's on backwards, and upside down…"

Ayame did a sweat drop, "… I knew that…"

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One long tutorial of how to wear clothes later

Ayame stood proudly in her shirt and dark blue jeans that fit loosely, but not too loosely, to not inhibit her movements in combat and also cut a small hole in the back for her tail. She twirled around happily in front of Takami. "How do I look?" with a giggle added on the end.

He smiled, "It suits you, now come upstairs and help me pack, then we can figure out how that digivice thing works."

"I started fiddling with it a lot while you were gone and got most of it down. It's quite a device! Maps, radar, communicator, even a place to store Digimon!"

Takami blinked, "That's a lot to do for such a small thing. Well, let's get packing then."

After finishing packing, Takami stood outside with his suitcase, waiting for the bus. He noticed that he wasn't the only one waiting in his neighborhood though. Rua and Suri exited their houses with suitcases too. 'They have Digimon too?! That's a shocker…' They both headed over to Takami's front yard with their items so the bus could only stop at one house.

"I guess I'm not the only one," Suri said as she plopped her suitcase down to sit on. "So who do you guys have? I got Dorumon."

Rua leaned on Takami's porch, "I got Labramon."

"Ayame's my partner."

Suri and Rua turned to him in confusion. "Who's Ayame?"

"Well she's actually a Renamon, but she likes being called Ayame. Neat isn't it?"

Suri nodded slowly, "It's definitely different."

"Hey look, the bus is coming," Rua pointed out while pointing at the end of the street.

Yeah, I know. Not the most exciting of chapters, but all in due time readers… All in due time…

READ AND REVIEW! AYAME BIDS YOU TO! o-o


	7. Team Efforts

Now for things to pick up =)

Disclaimer: I own no digimon v.v but i call dibs on the humans o.o

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As the trio slept through the bus ride, they were awoken by their ears popping to a sudden change in altitude. Rua rubbed his eyes while complaining and looked out the window. All he saw was a grey fog. "What kind of fog exists so high up?"

"It's probably a low cloud. Guess camp is on a mountain. Hope no one falls off," Suri joked.

"HEY. That crap isn't funny. I don't have a problem with heights. It's just the fact that I don't like thinking about the possibility of PLUMMETING from said height," Rua barked in his defense.

"Don't think of it as a fear of falling, more like… a fear of heading towards the ground at an extreme velocity and colliding with it, splattering your innards and bones amongst the road," Takami said with a smirk.

"Go screw yourselves!" Rua said in a huff while turning away, only to smack his forehead against the window, causing a laugh from both Takami and Suri.

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After the long ride to camp, they finally arrived. The first thing they did was to find a nice quiet cabin, which Suri found just along the perimeter of the camp. Their cabin had around 4 bunk beds and a lot of space for storage. Despite them all being close friends, Suri convinced them to divide the sleeping arrangements between a guys' and girls' side. Rua also planned a head and brought an inflatable mattress set, so everyone could have comfort wherever they slept. Once they were settled, they decided to let their Digimon out of their digivices.

Suri let out her Dorumon, who immediately started wandering around and fiddling with various objects around the room. Rua let out his Labramon, who climbed to a top bunk and claimed his spot quite loudly. Takami let out Ayame who greeted her new acquaintances then took a top bunk above Suri. Since there was no announcement for the campers when they got off the bus, they sat in their cabin and conversed until they got bored.

A couple of hours later, Rua was half-hanging off of his bed, face first into a pillow and snoring quite loudly. Takami stayed up with Suri talking about how their digivices worked until the sun finally descended over the mountain range in the distance. Suri took the opportunity to prepare herself for bed, and Takami decided to kick Rua awake. Rua simply flung the nearest blunt object at Takami's direction, but failed epically and nearly hit Dorumon, and received a chunk of shining metal into his back.

"Dammit, that hurt!!" Rua yelled while being awakened by Dorumon's Metal Burst. "You threw something at me, I hurl an attack at you. Then we all become happy!" Dorumon exclaimed happily while waving his arms. Ayame giggled at his gestures, reminding her of a child.

Rua, now grumbling, slumped into the other bathroom to get changed for bed. Takami sat around patiently on the air mattress for a bathroom to open up. Suri was the first to re-emerge. Takami did a double take at her attire which consisted of a long t-shirt that reached to her knees, covered by a purple translucent nightgown. He was speechless.

"What the heck are you staring at?" she asked in a somewhat confused and pissed off tone.

"I didn't think you were the … WOW." Takami said, dumbfounded, trying to avert his gaze to somewhere else. "I thought you weren't the feminine type, Suri."

Suri sighed and crawled into bed. "My mom talked me into it, said my summer would be more interesting. No clue what she's talking about but whatever. Oh and tell Rua if he comes within five feet of my bun, he will be stricken down with a dagger I keep on my person."

Takami nodded but then looked confused, "Why just Rua? He isn't the only guy in the cabin, ya know."

Suri looked at him for a moment, "Well I just trust you almost more than my parents, Dorumon's clueless, and Labramon's playing king of the hill in a bunk bed. Rua just so happens to be too… bold for my tastes," she replied as she turned away, quickly slipping off into sleep.

Takami now having a confidence boost in the night, went to change for bed. Unfortunately, Rua came out too late and wasn't able to hear her warning. So being the rebellious teenager he was, he decided to use the ol' fashioned shaving cream feather trick. (Censoring out how bad that went.)

Takami returned to the room to find a smiling Suri and a scared Rua pinned to the wall with a dagger piercing his shorts, just below the family jewels. "… First time forgiveness?" he asked.

Rua whimpered out, "Dorumon sneezed and threw off her aim. Can you help me out here? I don't think she'll ever miss again…"

Takami smirked and just simply crawled onto his mattress and pretended to sleep. Ayame got up and duct taped his mouth shut so he wouldn't make too much noise. A couple hours later, Labramon eventually got off his high horse and helped him down.

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Ayame was the first one to wake up the next morning around 6:30 am. Before she did anything, she took time to observe the sunrise, one of the few things she remembers from the digital world. Takami rolled off his air mattress and onto his face, followed by a mumble of complaints while waking up.

"Floors hurt…" he mumbled sleepily while trying to crawl back under his blanket, only to be stopped by Ayame's tail wrapped around his ankle.

"Oh no you don't. You're up now!"

Takami whined, "Uggghhh,.. Five more minutes, mom. I don't want to go to school today." Then successfully released himself from her tail's grasp. Ayame frowned but then smirked. "Fine, stay asleep."

Takami dozed happily until something just landed on his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. He shot up from his sleep to see Ayame smiling at him and wagging her tail happily. "Good morning," she chimed sweetly.

"Why did you have to *cough* land on my stomach?!"

"It's one of the few things I could think of. Try learning to get up earlier." She got off of him. "Fall asleep again and I will throw Labramon at you."

Takami grudgingly got out and stumbled into the bathroom.

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After breakfast

The camp took up three hours in the afternoon explaining why the camp was established. Takami and his friends learned that since the world was more peaceful without the constant arrival of Digimon, it wasn't necessary to have kids with Digimon running around being vigilantes. The camp was also designed to train their skills in an organized manner. Finally, it created a community so that tamers wouldn't feel excluded for being different.

After the purpose was stated clearly by the disciplinarian, the head counselor, a middle aged woman who looked around her twenties, Ms. Izuru appeared at the podium. She went explicitly over what she did and didn't accept while they were at camp, along the lines of selfish fighting, gang wars, and absolutely No KILLING. Once she left, their technological expert came up and explained how the digivice works, its functions, and the essence of digisoul itself. It turns out that it is a physical manifestation of a bond between a tamer and their Digimon that went from internal willpower combining with the aura of data that surrounded the tamer's partner, causing it to flare up into little bits of a certain color. Then they were released to enjoy themselves and all the camp had to offer.

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Takami's group left while Rua was talking about raiding the cafeteria for food, only to be reprimanded by Suri about worrying over his stomach too much. He retorted that she was only jealous that he could eat so much and still look trim (NEVER ATTEMPT THIS IN REAL LIFE. IT WILL ALWAYS END BAD!) That earned him a power slap to the face, leaving a bright red hand-shaped imprint.

"You totally had that one coming," Takami commented.

"Guys are lucky they can burn carbs so fast. It's not so easy for us," Suri huffed angrily while walking ahead.

"If it helps any, I think you look nice, Suri," Takami added, hoping to ease the tension the two created.

"Why thank you, Takami. It's nice to feel appreciated by someone," she turned around to smile at him right before she bumped into a taller teenager, who looked around 17, and fell down. "Ow…"

The teenager then had a group to surround him, who consisted mostly of guys around his age and a few slightly younger girls. "Watch where you're going, new meat…" he practically growled.

Rua went over to help Suri up. "Lighten up. It was an accident, after all," Takami said in Suri's defense. The older teenager then gripped Takami's jacket and lifted him slightly so they were eye level.

"The name's Chad, returning student. Learn to respect your seniors. Today, I'm feeling gracious, beat it before I get mad!" He then placed Takami down and pushed him back towards his group, earning a couple of oooh's from the surrounding guys.

"Don't talk to him like that!" Suri barked at him. Takami also grabbed Rua's shirt collar before he tried to rush at Chad.

"Hey, little girl, I wasn't talking to you. Don't think I wouldn't teach you a lesson either," Chad smirked.

"…Little?" Suri repeated, fuming internally. One of her pet peeves was being insulted on her slight underdevelopment physically.

"Suri, Rua. Come on, let's go. We have better things to do than scrap now, Takami said while walking straight through the crowd of guys, soon followed by his two friends. They left the laughing group of older people for their cabin.

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Suri was busy storming around the room, flaming about the 'little' comment from earlier. Rua just sat quietly as he watched, not wanting to attract any of her rage at the moment. Takami let her vent out her frustrations, knowing a few tricks on how women express their thoughts. Ayame was arguing with Labramon about leaving hair all over the place. Too bad Ayame wore clothes and didn't shed.

"How dare he call me little…" Suri muttered angrily from a corner.

"Hey Takami, how come we didn't kick his ass? You know all three of us could have taken him down easily," Rua asked from his mattress.

"The way I see it is that he values his reputation above anything else here. If we take that from him, we would not only have to deal with him trying to get it back, but also anyone else who wants to take a shot at it as well. Seriously, a couple of ex-freshmen taking down a group of juniors and seniors? That'd inspire rebellion with newcomers, causing unnecessary conflict, eventually leading back to us. It's less troublesome just to hang back with all other new comers," he replied monotonously from his floor bed. Ayame looked down at him from her bunk.

"You considered all of that within the four seconds he was close to you?" Ayame asked.

"Mostly, and also for the fact that I wasn't in the mood for scrapping, and for the fact that I think the head counselor was giving me some weird vibes," he added with a slight shiver.

Suri finally calmed down enough to actually listen to what they were saying. "So what do we do in the meantime?"

Rua thought for a moment. "How 'bout we learn about this digisoul they mentioned? It caused our Digimon to get a lot stronger, going from in-trainings to rookies."

"Not only does it make them stronger, it also makes _us_ stronger too…" Takami said.

"What do you mean 'make us stronger'?" Suri asked.

"Well when I first got my digisoul, Ayame was in a bit of trouble and I ran in. I thought I wouldn't make much of a difference, but somehow I hit at least 10 times harder than normal. It was weird, but invigorating!"

"Then can you show us?" Rua asked.

"Yeah… about that… I honestly have no clue on how it got there in the first place," Takami responded nervously, causing the other two to sigh. Ayame then plopped down next to Takami.

"It only appeared because Takami cares about me," she chirped happily.

"Just what are you going on about?" Labramon yawned from his bunk, awaking from his nap.

"He got stronger because he _loves_ me," Ayame giggled, enjoying her teasing.

"Shut up Ayame," Takami said while crossing his arms and turning away.

"Oh you know you do~" she added while wagging her tail in front of his nose, causing him to sneeze. "Admit it!"

"I said shut up!" he threw a pillow at her face for emphasis. "And I so don't."

"If that's true, then why are you blushing?" she pointed out while poking his reddening cheeks.

Takami stormed out of the door in frustration, from being called out. Ayame giggled, "Someone's grumpy." The other two smiled before going back to talking.

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Three days later

It was a rather slow day, since there were few activities being held. The trio were all staying up and talking about what they'd like to happen in the middle of the night. They were scared out of their skin when their digivices started beeping and shining rapidly.

"Why are our digivices tripping out…?!" Rua asked while picking up his, not knowing what to expect.

"If I remember correctly, the tech guy from earlier this week said something about this. It's supposed to be an alert and to press the button third from the left." Suri added, while doing so. A three-dimensional holographic map popped up from the screen with three red blinking dots, with six green ones, and arrows pointing towards the red.

"Well instead of sitting here wondering, who is up for a little late night stroll?" Takami asked while putting on some dark blue clothes.

"I am so in." Rua replied, dressing in the same way.

"Are you two insane?! It's after curfew. If we get busted, we are so in for it." Suri pointed out, changing herself.

"Don't worry Suri, we'll protect you from the big bad monsters of the night." Takami said while smirking.

She smacked his shoulder while proceeding to opening a window and jumping out. "Just try to keep up," and then ran into the darkness, Takami and Rua following.

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After maneuvering through the camp grounds, they came across a thick fog.

"Well whatever those red things were, are through this fog," Rua said while closing his map.

"Then let's do this already," Takami added while pressing the side button. "Ayame, realize." A swirl of code came from his digivice and made up the shape of a certain fox Digimon.

"Is it time to play, Takami?" She said while stretching a little.

"Dorumon, realize." Suri said, causing Dorumon to appear.

"It's time for fun, right Suri?" Dorumon asked excitedly.

"Jinsa, realize." Rua said, causing Labramon.

"I've been itching to scrap all day," Labramon said easily.

"Jinsa?" Ayame asked. "Where'd that come from?"

"What? Can't a Digimon give himself a name?" Jinsa asked her.

"Fair enough. Now let's go!" they all then charge into the mist.

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The mist turned out to be a lot thinner than they expected. And in the middle, it seemed to let up.

"So this is the inside of a digital field?" Takami asked while looking around.

"Looks like it. But where's the tar-" Rua said before jumping out of the way from random rocks flying at him. "What the crap was that?!"

"I could take a guess," Takami said while turning his digivice to the direction they came from. "Just as I thought. Gotsumon, three of 'em."

"Perfect. One for each of us!" Ayame said while launching herself at one, giving it a spin kick to send it flying backwards.

Dorumon followed Ayame in charging the Gotsumon, except that he used his strong tail to send one in a different direction, leaving the last one for Jinsa, who bit down on part of the Gotsumon's leg and flung it at a tree.

The three Gotsumon were easily overwhelmed by the sheer physical force of the three rookies. Even their tamers noticed a difference about each of them. When they first digivolved to rookie, they at least needed an attack to finish off an opponent, but were doing just as good without them.

"Well that was easy," Ayame said while tossing her opponent down and brushed her hands off.

"Kinda boring if you ask me," Jinsa pouted slightly.

"Um, guys? I think you watch what you wish for…" Dorumon pointed out.

"What makes you say that?"

"Possibly the fact these guys are Digivolving…" Dorumon pointed at the three figures of Gotsumon that were now glowing and growing. Their shaped turned from humanoid to more of a quadruped beast form. Horns grew from their head and a long tail sprouted as well. When the light disappeared, three dinosaur-like Digimon roared at their ex-opponents.

Takami pointed his digivice at one of them. "Monochromon… Champion level data types? This could be problematic…" he winced slightly, not knowing if Ayame could handle a champion.

Jinsa smirked and faced a Monochromon. "The thing about these guys is they may have a tough hide on top of them, but vulnerable stomach. Not that bright either, so I can imagine a way we can beat these guys."

Ayame nodded, "That would make things interesting. Shall you do the honors?"

"Gladly," Jinsa said before maneuvering under a charging Monochromon. "Labra Fang!" Jinsa's fangs grew at least four times the normal size and caught hold of the Monochromon's tail, then were actually able to get it noticeably airborne.

Dorumon ran under where Monochromon would have landed and aimed upward. "Metal Burst!" A silvery projectile flew directly up to the Monochromon's stomach, and pierced straight through, successfully coding it back into an egg.

"That's one down," Ayame said while taunting the next one with several light kicks to the face. The enraged champion level charged at her recklessly, only to miss by her jumping out of the way and met a tree, face first. Its horns were lodged deep into the trunk and rammed it with enough force to knock it down, leaving it at a 45 degree angle.

"Diamond Storm!" Ayame yelled while firing her mini-projectiles at its exposed stomach, reducing it to code.

"Two." Dorumon smirked while turning to the last one. After seeing his two friends go down so easily, this last Monochromon was a little apprehensive, but didn't rush at first.

"Crono horn!" it said lowly as its horns grew and charged at Dorumon, who evaded, but just barely.

"That was close," Dorumon said to itself only to be greeted with a smack to the back from the champion's tail, causing him to fall.

The attacking Monochromon skidded to a sharp turn before turning around again to Dorumon. Before Dorumon knew it, a flash of yellow collided with the side of the charging attacker.

"Diamond Kick," Ayame said, leaving the Monochromon unbalanced and made it collide with a rock instead. "That was a little too close for comfort. We should finish this one off fast."

"Doubt he's going to fall for anything to flip him over," Jinsa added.

"How bout we outmuscle it? If we combined our attacks, I'm sure something outta happen!" Dorumon asked.

Jinsa thought for a moment. "That might work. You up for it?" he asked Ayame.

"This would definitely be interesting, to say the least."

The Monochromon turned back around to the rookies, who were in the same general area. He thought that would make for easier targets. "Crono horn!" it said again as it charged.

Ayame and Dorumon fired off a Diamond Storm and Metal burst simultaneously. Then Jinsa inhaled sharply. "Hyper Bark!" he yelled while firing a ring of sound from his mouth. When it caught up to the other previous attacks, they seemed to meld together and went faster, colliding with the Monochromon's attack and made an explosion. When the smoke cleared, only the coding of the last Monochromon was left.

Takami smiled, "Wow, you three just took down champions without even digivolving!"

"And the coordination of your attacks seemed so planned," Rua added.

The three Digimon stood there proudly getting praise from their tamers. The digital field that made the fog appear faded and the fog dissipated. The group of six returned to their cabin to get some well deserved rest, not knowing they were being watched…

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End of chapter 7

Read and review or else I will… make Rua get hurt more! =o

Rua: WTF man!? D;

Takami: Sucks to be you XD

Suri: *unposts story to not get reviews* bring on the pain! :D

Rua: *hides* someone help me T~T

Please… think of the Rua v.v


	8. Evolution Chain Pt 1

Now for the main characters first

Disclaimer: I own no digimon v.v but i call dibs on the humans o.o

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Next morning at breakfast, Takami was yawning more than usual due to the lack of sleep he got. Suri was sitting in the corner, finishing off her seventh cup of coffee and Rua was simply cleaning out the buffet of all things protein.

Takami was about to fall face first into sticky pillow of waffle until a slam on the table startled him. When he looks up, it's none other than a returning student from the previous week. "Hey newbies, sleep well?" he asks, now drawing attention of half the people sitting in the area.

Takami frowns and mumbles angrily about waffles. Chad simply ignores it and went on his rant. "The next time you feel the urge to run around campus in the middle of the night, DON'T. You get busted and we_ all_ suffer, **GOT IT?**" He slams his fist down into the stack of waffles that were almost a pillow and squirted syrup all over his own shirt, causing several people to laugh.

While Chad was ranting, Takami had gotten up and was already half way out of the noisy breakfast hall. He was stopped at the door by the head counselor. 'Crap, did we do something wrong already?!' He thought to himself as he woke up address her. "S-something the matter ma'am?"

Ms. Izuru shifts her glasses up with her pinky. "At 2:24 this morning, a digital field appeared in section 2-A of the campus. This was an assignment of the returning students to handle, but somehow, your group beat them to it. The rouge Digimon consisted of three rookies capable of digivolving to champion, but were defeated anyways. I'd like to see you and your group in my office in half an hour." She then turns her back to him and starts walking away. "Don't be late," she added while Takami turned to the now silent cafeteria. Everyone knew if the head counselor called anyone out, it wasn't good.

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Rua, Takami and Suri along with their Digimon arrived in the Izuru's office five minutes before they were late, fully clothed and looking nervous.

"Ah, glad to see all of you could make it. I'm guessing Takami filled you in on what I'm questioning, correct?" she asks and was answered by five quick nods. "Good. Now getting straight to the point, explain to me how three first-years and their rookie Digimon took down three adult-level Digimon."

Suri spoke up first, "Well, our digivices started going off in the middle of the night and we followed a map to them. When we got there, our Digimon made a series of coordinated attacks with little instruction from us." After she finishes speaking, she sinks back into her chair.

"So three rookies made a _combined_ effort to take down three champions?" Izuru asked, shifting her gaze to Rua and Takami, who automatically sat up even straighter.

"Actually, from the way they were working… I'm guessing each of us took time to individually train our Digimon on how to work together…" Rua answered, trying to not make eye contact.

"… Interesting… Very interesting…" Izuru turns from them and opens a file cabinet. She ruffles through various folders and then tosses a blue folder on the table and it slides towards them.

"What's this?" Ayame asked, leaning over Takami's head.

"_That_ is a file on an assignment I was going to assign to a returning team. They could easily get it done, but you all seem like a more interesting group to watch," Izuru replied with a smile as Takami opened it. There were three chips in a pocket of the folder and a typed list. "This mission will require you to enter the digital world and investigate a forest. There have been a report on increased commotion within it, most likely caused by Digimon gone rouge. Eventually they would enter our world and do the same. If possible, detain them from entering our world and find the cause of it. Any questions?"

Rua picks up a chip and examines it, "Just what are these chips for?"

"The chips are used for not only transferring your mission status back to us, but also for transportation back to here, communicators for tamers and most of all: data storage. When a Digimon is defeated, you remember seeing them explode into what looked like dust, right? Well this chip scans and collects that data then saves it. With the saved data, you could restore the Digimon and any damage to the terrain caused by it. So _please_ don't lose them."

They all nod, slide the chip into the slot of their digivices (which caused them to glow and adapt to the new system), then take their leave of Izuru's office. When they were out, Izuru smiles to herself. 'Don't disappoint me… Takami Kusajiki.'

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Takami's group arrived at what seemed to be a large cabin and entered it. Once inside, they were completely shocked to find a futuristic lab, filled with supercomputers, several large display panels with graphs too difficult to understand, and large tubes connected to several hundred wires running to various computers.

"What the crap?! Why is the U.S. Pentagon in a camp?!" Rua asks while looking around.

Takami walks closer to the large tubes. "I guess things here are more than meets the ey-"

"You make that reference and I will throw something sharp and painful at you," Suri interrupted.

A woman in a lab coat walked up and greeted them. "So you must be the ones taking the digital dive today. Please step into the central chamber and don't touch anything inside." She gestures to the one whose doors just opened. "When you are ready to return, just contact us and we will extract you. Good luck."

Various workers around the lab sat at different computers and began typing rapidly, updating on the little things that were accomplished. Takami and his team recalled their Digimon into their digivices and stepped into the tube. The doors closed and a bright yellow light engulfed the three tamers. The screens being worked at by the lab people had a red gate turn green and like that- the tamers were gone.

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In the digital world

From the blue sky, a beam of yellow light dropped rapidly towards the ground. However, instead of going in a straight line, the light divided into three, splitting the tamers up to different edges of the forest, leaving them to somehow keep the escaping Digimon at bay, and making their way to the center to relocate each other. The tamers were now isolated.

Takami was the first to land. He appears in what seemed like a meadow with somewhat tall grasses and many strange flowers, whose fluttering in the breeze made them seem almost alive. 'Well this makes things more complicated…' he thinks to himself as he let out Ayame.

"Where are the others?" Ayame asks while looking around and twitching her ears, trying to find any trace of them.

"Guess they landed somewhere else. So I guess we go towards the center of the forest and hope to meet up, right?"

Ayame nods but then turned to a group of flowers. "Takami, I think we should be careful here…"

"Why? If any Digimon tried to attack I'd think they stand out here in a meadow…"

"You'd be surprised. Digimon are indigenous to where they blend in the most," she said as she tosses a diamond shard at the flowers which caused them to scatter rapidly. "See what a mean?!" Ayame took a fighting stance as three small Digimon appeared in front of them. They all resembled plant stems with arms and flowers on their head.

Takami pulls out his digivice. "Floramon, rookies. They seem easy enough. Just look out for their Paralyzing Pollen; that stuff can really mess you up."

Ayame smirks and disappears right before their very eyes, leaving the Floramon baffled. She reappears in the center of their group. "Power Paw!" Ayame yelled as her fists and feet erupted in a deep blue flame and proceeded to send the Floramon in different directions with just a single strike.

The Floramon were taken by surprise but didn't seem worried at all. "Ayame, why aren't they panicking?"

"Don't know, but I really don't want to find out," Ayame charges the closest one who used vines from their hand to not only throw her off balance, but also to evade her charge and caused her to slide in the grass. They all group back together, laughing. Ayame got up with a growl, "Lucky shot." She charges again, only to get countered by six thick vines smacking her down. "That one hurt a little..."

Takami continues watching as Ayame struggled on. 'She can't take this forever! What should I do- oh… wait!' He reaches for his digivice again and presses the button furthest to the right, which makes the screen turn green. "Digi-Modify: Broadsword activate!" The digivice releases a swirl of data to Ayame's right hand and forms a medium-sized steel broadsword.

"What the heck?!" Ayame looked lost at to what happened but then shrugged it off and blocked the next onslaught of vines easily. "I like this modification~"

Takami smiles, "I added it in my spare time. Thought it might come in handy."

Ayame now charges the Floramon again, thwarting their blocks with the sword which slices and dices their vines effortlessly. She was almost in striking distance when they all nodded to each other and separated in five different directions. While in mid-air, they all yell, "Paralyzing Pollen!" and caused the area Ayame was in to be clouded by a thick mist of hazy yellow pollen and causes her to fall to the ground.

'Damn! Should have seen that coming…!' Ayame yelled internally, since she couldn't fully move her body for another good fifteen seconds. And the worst had yet to come; the Floramon started shining brightly and started growing. 'Double damn! I can barely handle them all at rookie! How can I handle five champions by myself…?'

The five Blossommon land around the incapacitated Ayame. Takami was worried and then thought back to when Ayame first digivolved. He gulped and then balled his right hand into a fist. 'Please, please work… for the sake of Ayame!' He ran towards one Blossommon whose back was turned towards him and delivers a jumping uppercut to the back of its head. The struck Blossommon was sent flying towards two more and were knocked back into the forest trees. Takami stood smiling at where it once stood. "Looks like I still- huh…?" He looked at his hand he struck it with but saw no digisoul. "I don't get it… why isn't it here?!"

While he was looking down the other two Blossommon swung two large vines toward him, getting his attention and making him dodge and moved him closer to Ayame, who was still down.

Elsewhere, Izuru was busy watching her screen in her office. 'Okay Mr. Kusajiki, show me your fighting passion. Show me you are worthy of your digisoul…' Takami was trying his best to avoid the swinging vines of the Blossommon while the previous three emerged out of the forest. 'Crap, this isn't good… First things first: Get Ayame out of here.' He lifted Ayame over his shoulder, and continued dodging while fleeing towards some trees for cover, but tripped over a root and collapsed with Ayame.

Ayame slowly rose as the effects of the pollen wore off, standing a little shaky though. Takami got up behind her. "Ayame, for some reason I can't get a digisoul anymore!" Ayame frowned and crouched.

"Guess I'll have to go without one. Diamond Storm!" Ayame launched a barrage of shards at the opposing Blossommon. The one in front was surprised and got the full blunt of the attack. Ayame smirked at the crystal's explosions. "That's one do-…" The smoke cleared and revealed that the attack almost no effect at all. Also the Blossommon behind it extended one of its vines and yelled, "Spiral Flower!" One of the biting heads of its tentacles launched itself and spun towards Ayame and Takami, knocking them both back through trees. Unfortunately, Ayame took the blunt of the attack and was nearly incapacitated.

Takami rose once again, although his ankle hurt, most likely from a sprain. The first Blossommon raised its vine high above Ayame and brought it down while yelling, "Thorn Whip!" Takami watched in horror as the vine seemed to descend in slow motion towards his fallen Digimon. In his mind, he thought back to when a Gotsumon loomed over Ayame as a Viximon, the panic he was first hit with, then the overwhelming adrenaline combined with the will to keep his partner safe.

Right before the vine came in contact with Ayame, it was stopped, letting her to look up in shock. Takami stood over her, fist raised and glowing. His digisoul finally ignited and took the Blossommon's shock as an opportunity to toss it back towards the approaching four others. He smirked as they all looked baffled after landing several meters further away. "I think we can even the playing field now, right Ayame?"

She smiled as she rose to her feet again, somehow feeling energized from Takami's sudden burst of willpower. "You know what to do right?"

Takami takes out his digivice from his back pocket and raises his right hand high. "Digisoul…" He brings it down to his digivice which glows bright blue from the screen, and letters in green spelled out 'Digivolution'. Takami then focuses his digisoul into his digivice and yells, "Charge!" A flurry of data erupts from the screen and envelops Ayame, forming a dome of data. First, she shifts onto all fours as her body elongates and her limbs thicken. Her very bone structure shifts to that of a quadruped and her tail splits at the base into nine longer ones. The tips of her tails and her paws were engulfed in a mystical dancing flame. The final bit of her transformation ended when she received a red ribbon with bells around her neck, and finally the shell of data exploded, revealing the now adult-level fox Digimon.

Takami stared in awe at Ayame's new form. She said with a slightly deeper but still gentle voice, "So this is what it's like at my champion level… Kyuubimon… I like it." She turned to a Blossommon that tried to sneak behind them and lunged forward. "Koshugeki!" she yelled as she head butted it but sent a powerful shockwave of psychic energy through it, causing it to explode into an egg. "There's one down, four more to go."

The remaining four Blossommon used caution and knew it would be dangerous to engage Ayame head-on. One launched another vine towards Takami who was standing behind Ayame. The vine was caught in the jaws of Ayame then yanked towards her and delivered another Koshugeki, bringing enemy numbers down to three. The Blossommon spread out of her range and started extending their vines to each other, then across the battlefield between Takami and Ayame, making a grid of spiny vines to limit their movements; even the slightest movement near them could be dangerous.

Takami carefully scrolled through a menu on his digivice. "Ayame, can I assume you have a ranged technique of some sort?" "You could say that," she replies. "Why, you have an idea?"

Takami smiled as he reached a certain item listed and the screen turned green. "Yep; Digi-modify- Attack Boost N Activate!" Ayame felt a surge of power flow throughout her body. 'I feel at least twice as powerful as before! Here goes nothing.' Her tail's flames started glowing brighter and seemed as if they were dancing. "Fox Tail Inferno!" The flames looked like they came to life as they raced down the vines of the Blossommon, burning everything they were connected to and simultaneously defeating all three of them at once. Takami scanned their data into his digivice and let out a relaxed sigh as Ayame extinguished any lingering flames.

Takami plopped down on a charred log with a huff, "Well that was certainly a rush, wasn't it?"

Ayame walked over and nudged him with her nose. "Don't tell me that tired you out. How is your ankle?"

"It doesn't hurt as much now, but I can fix it with a first aid kit I packed. But I think you're taking your victory too lightly."

"And why is that? I simply defeated the enemy." She smiled then rested her head on his lap. "Plus my last attack didn't have enough power to take all of them down, so it was a team effort."

Takami smiled more and pet her head gently. "So together, we defeated five ultimates… I call that a victory of the day."

Ayame reverted back to her rookie form as her first digivolution to champion tired her out. They took a few moments to rest before setting off to find their teammates.

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Now _that_ was a long chapter x.x hopefully I kept it interesting enough Read and rev-

Takami: WHAT THE CRAP MAN.

Me: what the hell's your problem?

Ayame: Why the hell did we get stuck with Ultimates!? DX those things hurt!

Me: well I thought they were champions until I looked it up and was too lazy to change it, so live with it.

Takami: son of a-

Me: Read and review!


	9. Evolution Chain Pt 2

Suri was running through the dense forest, darting through tree trunks and leaping over roots. Behind her were four large Digimon shooting flaming projectiles from their wings. Suri barely had any time to turn around to identify them with her digivice. 'Birdramon, three of them… Perfect.' As if navigating the forest wasn't hard enough, the birdramon's attacks were setting it ablaze, cutting off most escape routes. 'if only I could find a …!' She sees a light between a couple of trunks and dives through it, landing on the shore of a lake.

"Finally, an open area…" The birdramon swoop over her, creating a powerful wind and started turning around for another attack. Suri whipped out her digivice from her belt. "Dorumon realize!" Dorumon appears in a swirl of data, fully aware of the situation.

"Okay, now that you lured them out, what next? I can't exactly fly you know…" Dorumon asks her while he turns towards the incoming opponents. He fires a few metal bursts to make them scatter.

"Just hold on, I have an idea." Suri is searching through her pocket for something. Another Birdramon swoops down to Dorumon, trying to grab it by its head. Dorumon ducks, nearly being carried off by his tail. "Oh, sure. Take your time. I've got _all_ day…" he yells worriedly.

"Found it!" Suri holds up a card and then swipes it through her digivice. "Digi-modify: Hyperwing activate!" Dorumon blinks, feeling a strange surge of energy on its small wings on its back. Data swirls around them then joins together, making four large wings of white. Dorumon smiles and yells out, "That'll work!" He leaps up in the air, giving his wings a couple flaps. His movements were awkward while dodging the opponent's swoops. 'This is harder than it looks…'

Suri watches from below while clenching her digivice. 'This is bad… he isn't built to fly as a rookie. Hyperwings are only useful for levitating and elevating, not combat…' Dorumon continues firing shots off at the Birdramon, who dodge effortlessly. One of them decided to stop playing air tag and shot a Meteor Wing at Dorumon. He barely dodges it by going up, only to be hit in the back by another one using Mach Grinder, slashing at him with his sharp talons. Dorumon uses his tail to break away, but with several deep cuts.

Unexpectedly, he is hit back by another Meteor wing, and falls towards the lake, singed. 'I had a feeling… this wouldn't end well…' Dorumon said to his self as his eyes slowly closed.

Suri watches in horror as her partner plummets from the sky. 'No… he can't…' She clenches her digivice tighter.

'He has to…' Thoughts of Dorumon hitting the water and drowning from his inability to swim.

'No…' Her hand not clenching her digivice is enveloped in a purple aura of code.

'D… Doru… DORUMONNNN!!!' She raises her hand with her digisoul and slams it into her digivice. "Digisoul, CHARGE!"

While falling, Dorumon is enveloped in a sphere of data. Within the storm, his form shifts. The Hyperwings disappear and his talons grow and change from gray to blood red. His fur starts changing color, from a light lavender to jagged lines of dark blue and black. His wings grow much larger and his ears become more pointed. The data storm around him explodes and he stretches his new wings, gliding along the lakes edge. "Dorugamon," he says in a deeper, but calmer way.

Suri stares in amazement as he spins back up into the air and tackles one Birdramon out of their formation. While the Birdramon is caught off guard, Dorugamon opens his mouth and opens his mouth. "Metal Cannon." A beam of silver blasts the Birdramon and the one behind it. He turns to the last one and flies toward it at a rapid pace. While flying, he starts spinning and is coated in a sheet of a silvery substance. "Hyper Dash," Dorugamon pierces the last Birdramon as a rotating spiked ball and then descends down to Suri, who hasn't blinked ever since he digivolved.

He smiles and licks her cheek. "Well don't just stand there and stare; say something."

Suri hugs the neck of Dorugamon, "You idiot, I thought you were in deep trouble out there."

"I was, until you helped me digivolve. And I have to admit, I am seriously liking the wings!" He flaps his wings for emphasis and causes her to giggle a little.

"So shall we search for the others from the sky?" She climbs on his back, holding onto his neck.

"Sounds like a plan to me!" Dorugamon leaps up and starts flying through the air above the forest.

End of chapter 9

Me: *emerges from my period of inactivity* ROAAAAARRRR (yes I know, very short. Shush all those who complain. it was a fight with Dorugamon in it, how long do you expect it to last?)

Dorugamon: *points* GOOODZIIIIILLAAAAA :O

Takami: What the hell are you two doing?

Me: *puts down a flash light* uhh… Nothing '

Dorugamon: Read and review everyone *runs around flapping new wings* Wheee- *runs into a ceiling fan*

Suri: I knew we had those installed for a reason =D


	10. Evolution Chain Pt 3

Rua and Jinsa were busy scaling a steep cliff. They landed in a deeper area than the others and thought to get a look of the land from a higher elevation. Rua was having a much simpler time climbing than Jinsa. "Remind me again… _why_ are we climbing up a cliff? This isn't exactly easy for me you know…" Jinsa complains.

Rua turns down to him. "Didn't I tell you four times already? Those sounds we heard before sounded like trees falling."

"What does that have to do with anything?!"

Rua sighs and rests on a somewhat-flat part of a rocky outcrop, helping Jinsa up. "The sounds were kinda faint, like the entire trunk didn't collapse. So I'm assuming something from above the trees was able to push them down, more specifically- a flying Digimon. That area quieted up a little while ago. There were also some signs of smoke from another direction, which means someone set something on fire. Renamon is a fire- attribute data type so it must be her, or else there wouldn't be a forest of rouge Digimon who breathed _fire_. And in order to defeat a flying enemy, I can assume Dorumon got some kind of ability to fly."

Jinsa sits there panting but nods, "You thought of all of that by yourself? And that still doesn't explain why we had to get up on a cliff…"

"Think about it, smoke comes from a source and Suri's flying. We'd have a better chance of spotting her or getting her attention from a higher point. Now stop complaining; we're almost there." Jinsa sighs as he places his sore paws on yet another indent in the side of the cliff.

* * *

Another 70 or so feet

Jinsa was laying flat on his back, happy to set his feet on flat ground again. Rua is now looking over the edge of the cliff. "Well I can see the smoke remains from here, but knowing Takami… he's probably moved on from there, but not that far. And that patch of crashed trees was where Suri was, but she's probably flying low for me and Takami… hmm…"

Jinsa sits up and walks over to Rua, "So we're up here, now what?"

Rua scratches his head while thinking. "Well if we had something to burn, we could make a signal fire, but there are only rocks up here… If we only had a way to make a lot of noise-"

A loud thump several feet down the cliff catches their attention. The thumps came at a louder, uneven pace. "Enemies, around four of 'em. And they sound pretty big by how far they are," Jinsa said with a smirk.

"I think we just found our signal," Rua said while pulling out his digivice as four large, roaring dinosaur-like creatures emerged from a stack of rocks. Most of their body was a dark red only to be interrupted by dark green stripes. "Tyrannomon and four of them?"

"Way to go, you lead us into aggressive territory. How do we get out of this one?" Jinsa asks while getting into fighting position.

"You know you ask a lot of questions for a mutt," Rua answers while smiling and pulling out a card from his pocket. He raises the card and then slides it through his digivice. "Digi-modify: Flash Speed Activate!" Jinsa's legs were surrounded in data, making them more muscular but covered with three leather straps each. 'Since a Labramon's power is dependent on the speed it's delivered, even taking down huge opponents like this should be a breeze.'

Jinsa bares his fangs as he charged the Tyrannomon in front. The Tyrannomon brace for impact in hope for a counter attack, but was baffled as Jinsa darted _under_ him. From behind, Jinsa bites onto Tyrannomon's tail and whips it around, sending it flying towards the other three. The flying Tyrannomon slid on the ground and landed in front of its teammates, which made them stop to re-access their opponent.

Jinsa approaches them slowly, keeping their attention away from Rua trying to get behind them and away from the edge of the cliff. As Rua nearly passes one, he steps on a rock that crumbled and gets one of the Tyrannomon to lash out its powerful tail at his back. Rua, not expecting to be hit so suddenly, was sent flying and eventually rolling into a boulder that cracked from impact. 'Damn that one really hurt...'

Jinsa's eyes widen and he maneuvers through the cluster of enemies to Rua's side. Another Tyrannomon lashes its tail to send him flying into the same boulder. Rua looks over at Jinsa and smiles a little. "That one look like it hurt…"

Jinsa sits up and smiles back, "You tell me, did it?" The Tyrannomon took their talking as an advantage to charge at them. Jinsa turns to them, "We were having a conversation. Have some MANNERS!" On his last word, he released a Labra Bark as a shockwave to stop them in their tracks. The reverberating sound from his attack made the ground crack beneath them. Rua squints at the ground and then sits up.

"Hey Jinsa, I know how we can kill two birds with one stone! But we're gonna have to use _that _form again…"

Jinsa turns his head to the side slightly. "Are you sure? You know how I feel about-"

"Positive, it's the only way we can be fast and effective."

Jinsa sighs then turns back to the Tyrannomon. "Nope, no way. These guys aren't worth it." Jinsa jumps up in the air readying another attack.

"Jinsa wait!" Rua yells, but is too late; the Tyrannomon took Jinsa's airborne status to fire off four balls of fire. Jinsa wasn't prepared for them to be able to pull off medium ranged attacks and tried to block them with another Labra Bark, but only succeeded in weakening the overall attack to around half. He fell to the ground with smoking fur.

"You idiot! Stop being so damn prideful and use it already! We're partners for a reason! Let me help you!"

Jinsa struggles to sit up and coughs, "… Fine. Just this once though…"

"Bout time, ya stubborn mutt." Rua smirks and raises his left hand, glowing in a red aura of digisoul.

"I'm only stubborn to prove I've got what it takes to keep up with ya." The Tyrannomon start charging towards them again. Jinsa smirks back as Rua slams his hand onto his digivice. "Digisoul Charge!" Rua's digivice reads out the words: Digivolution in red letters and then a flash of red light makes data swirl around Jinsa. Jinsa's body starts to grow and his fur starts getting darker until it's a charcoal black. His tail recedes as his body grows, causing the last portion of his spine to make bulges under his skin on his back. His fangs grow sharper along with his claws. With a howl, he emerges from his swirl of data and yells out: "Dobermon!"

The next thing the Tyrannomon unlucky enough to be in the front knew, it had a chunk of flesh missing from its shoulder. It roared in agony as it disappeared into data while Jinsa held the missing chunk in its fangs, letting it drop to the ground as it disintegrated with the rest of its first victim. The three other Tyrannomon stared in shock as their leader was taken down by the fearsome demon dog.

Dobermon leapt at two of them and extended its front legs, then proclaimed, "Nightmare Claw!" Its claws grew longer and were enveloped in a dark red aura and Dobermon started spinning, shredding the two until they disappeared in strips of data. The last Tyrannomon started backing up towards the cliff edge in fear of ending up like its friends.

"Now for the last one." Jinsa took a firm stance while inhaling. As it exhaled sharply, it yelled, "Shadow Howl!" The sonic blast from its mouth was much louder and powerful than Labra Bark, not only pushing Tyrannomon _off_ the cliff, but shattering the cliff itself, making it to crumble into a rockslide. The last Tyrannomon was crushed into data by the rockslide and Jinsa stands near the edge, smiling in victory.

"Now that wasn't so bad, now was it?" Rua asks patting Jinsa's head.

"Yes, it was. Do you have any idea how horrible Tyrannomon taste?! This form depends on biting too much and- hey… what's that over there?" Jinsa gestures to some figure coming towards them from the sky.

Rua squints at the flying creature as it comes closer. "I… don't really know. It looks kinda familiar." The creature lands behind him and gives them both a smile.

"There you guys are! I've been flying around all over for you. Good thing you two are so loud or else you would have been stuck here." Dorugamon tucks his wings back and walks over to him. "Although the rockslide was a little over the top."

Rua stares at him and blinks, "Is that you, Dorumon?"

He nods, "Yep, my champion form is awesome, correct?" He flaps his wings again to show them off.

"… How come you got cooler when you digivolved to champion?!" Rua points at him while Jinsa scoffs then de-digivolves. "Oh, and can you fly us to the others? Jinsa's horrible at climbing." Rua flashes a sheepish grin as he calls Jinsa back into his digivice.

"That's what they sent me for!" Dorugamon kneels down as Rua hops on his back and grunts sharply. "You're heavier than the other two…" He comments lowly as he takes off for the opening where the rest of the group awaits.

* * *

Me: And yet another glorious chapter is done! =D

Suri:…

Takami: …

Me: What's your problem?

Suri: How come Labramon was already able to go to champion?!

Me: Why didn't you ask if he could already?

Suri: … cause-

Me: I thought so. Read and review.


	11. Return to the Peace?

Back at the meeting spot, Takami was tinkering with his digivice, trying to attain contact with home base. Suri went off somewhere soon after setting up a temporary camp. Ayame is now resting in Takami's digivice. Suri eventually emerges from the cluster of trees and Takami looks up at her.

"Welcome back, did you find… whatever you were looking for?" he asked.

"That I did," she responds when holding up a "bowl" of water made from a large leaf, "now let's get started." She walks closer to him.

Takami stops messing with his digivice and puts it on his belt line. "…with what?"

"Lose the shirt."

"…**EXCUSE ME**?!" he asks while blinking, trying to process the question.

"You heard me. Lose the shirt." She walks around behind him and grabs the bottom of his shirt.

"Whoa, whoa whoa! Slow your roll! What are you doing?!" Takami tries to move away but she struggles holding him down.

"Stop squirming dammit, I'm trying to help you!"

"By taking off my shirt?!"

"Yes, now _stop moving._"

As if called on cue, Rua and Dorugamon had already landed nearby and were watching the scene from afar. Rua takes the opportunity to walk in. "Hope I'm not interrupting you two, but have we found a way out of here yet?"

Suri and Takami freeze and slowly turn to Rua, who is laughing at their scene. They both quickly separate on to two different rocks. "It is NOT what it looks like! I was trying to help him!"

"By taking off his shirt," Rua adds.

Suri sighs before abruptly turning Takami around to make him look away from Rua. "His shirt has blood stains on it. I got that water to clean it and patch it up with the kit I brought in my storage. Someone has to keep you guys alive, and unfortunately, it's me."

"Why didn't you say that in the first place?! I felt violated!" Takami whines.

Rua walks over to Takami and pats his back hard, "Feel honored to have a girl pull your shirt off!"

One violent scene and a patch up later

Rua rubs his head, which is now wrapped in a bandage from the bludgeoning he received. Takami, now treated for injuries, was still trying to contact the camp for help. After inputting a sequence of buttons, his screen projected a three-dimensional image of the camp insignia. "I think I did something right! Hello? Hello? Can anyone hear me?"

A face of a scientist from the lab before they left appeared in place of the hologram. "Yes we can hear you. Are you all unharmed? We had some interference when you landed from an unknown source, but it's cleared up. Prepare for a digital evac."

Suddenly, the group's digivices beamed a small beam of light into the sky. A few seconds later, a large beam of yellow light envelops them individually. They are then teleported out of the forest and back into the laboratory.

* * *

Back in lab

A group of scientists, along with Izuru, stood eagerly around the teleportation chamber. There was a flash of light from inside, then it opened up to reveal the three victorious group members. The scientists cheer and applaud as they help them out and escort them to the infirmary.

While Takami was being properly treated, Izuru knocked on the door of the examination room and entered.

"Oh, hello Ms. Izuru. How may I help you?" the nurse asks as she wraps the last of Takami's bandages.

"I just came to speak privately with the patient." She smiles innocently, but Takami still shivers.

"Alright, I'll be outside of you need me," the nurse exits as Takami hops off the exam table and puts on his shirt again and Izuru sits down in a chair.

"Takami I've come to you today to talk about something important."

"What is it?"

"It's about something about your group's actions today, and your digisoul. You and Rua both were attacked by strong Digimon, but barely have a scratch on you. Suri has a medical condition that should have made her joints lock up from running, but she was able to run through dense forest for over a mile."

"… Is that something that isn't normal?"

Izuru shifts in her seat and crosses her legs as she gathers her thoughts. "It's definitely rare. In a few days, I'll get back to you on a theory I have. Until then, get some rest." She then stands and exits the room. Takami grabs his digivice and meets up with his friends and they all go their cabin to rest.

When they get there, Takami jumps on his bed and then looks over the edge. "Hey guys, I got a question," he asks.

They both look at him. "What? Ask it already so we can sleep…" Rua responds.

"We all took down some tough enemies today. I got a feeling that they aren't going to get any easier in the future…"

"Where's the question in this?" Suri asks.

"Since we're practically a mini-squad, what should we call ourselves?"

Both Rua and Suri blink, and Ayame blurts out from Takami's digivice, "Team Falx!"

"Where'd you get that from?" Dorumon asks from Suri's.

"Dunno, but it sounds cool doesn't it?"

"You got a point there…"

Takami blinks, then smiles, "All in favor of Team Falx?" The vote is unanimous.

Outside in courtyard, two days late, mid day

Takami is now strolling from the infirmary once more from a check-up to make sure all was functioning. He and Suri had planned on spending their lunch together while planning for a mission after Rua returns from his check-up. Near the flagpole, he is stopped by a familiar voice. "Hey newbie," 'Oh god, not now…' "haven't seen ya around lately. You been hiding?" a group following the infamous Chad snickers.

"As much as I enjoy your company, I had other things to focus on."Takami replies while trying to pass, but is stopped by older teenagers blocking off his path.

"Funny. Word on the street is that you took my posse's mission. We don't take kindly to a bunch of newbies stepping in on our turf."

Takami stops and faces him, "That was _your_ mission? Well I'm glad I went, you could have gotten hurt!" he says in a condescending way.

"… You _dare_ question _my_ abilities?"

Takami frowns and squints, "Apparently…"

"You're gonna wish you never did." Chad takes out his digivice from his pocket.

"I don't have a lot of time, so let's make this quick. Ayame, realize!" Ayame appears in a swirl of data, swishing her tail and blinks at Chad. "You called me out for _this_…?" Ayame asks while glancing at him.

Chad frowns at the insult. "Your fox has quite a mouth. Elecmon, realize!" A small dog-like creature appears from a swirl of data. It has six tails and mostly red fur, with blue lightening stripes spackling its body. "Now I'm gonna wipe the floor with you!" He reaches into his back pocket and pulls out an odd colored card.

Takami stares at the strange card. "There's something weird about that card… What is it?"

An arrogant smile grows on Chad's face. "Oh, you'll see…" He raises his hands as he swipes the card through his digivice. "Digi-modify: Digivolution activate!" Both Takami's and Ayame's eyes widen.

Elecmon is enveloped with a swirl of data as it changes completely; its back legs grow out longer, letting it able to stand upright; its fur recedes back into most of its body, except for parts of its neck, spine and paws. Elecmon's form starts to shift to a more humanoid shape. When it emerges, he looks like a large lion with black pants and a sword strapped to its waist.

"He digivolved into Leomon without using a digisoul…?" Takami asks to Ayame.

"Don't worry, a real Leomon is _much_ stronger than this one. I might not even have to digivolve for this one." Ayame strolls over to the awaiting Leomon and gets into a defensive position. Leomon first charges at her, unsheathing his sword. Ayame watches closely as he swings his arm and dodges the blade with much ease.

Leomon is a little shocked that she dodged it so easily and tries to get her when he swings backwards. Ayame dodges again by ducking and delivers a sweep kick to the back of his leg, causing him to lose balance and spin out of control. When he is turned around, she gives him a firm jump kick into the base of his tail, sending his face into the flagpole.

The crowd starts murmuring about how a rookie is able to stand up to a champion so easily and Chad unconsciously clenches his fist. "Cmon Leomon, let her have it! She's just another opponent!"

Leomon shakes off the collision and puts his sword away, realizing that trying to use any weapon against an agile opponent would be a waste of time. He clenches a fist together and it starts flaming as he pulls back his arm. Ayame's eyes widen, 'He can't seriously be planning on using that here… if I dodge that, it'll hit the humans behind me…' Leomon thrusts his flaming fist forward and yells, "Fist of the Beast King!"

The flame launches itself off of his fist and grows larger, into the shape of a giant lion's head. Takami is first confused as to why Ayame hasn't bothered moving yet, but realizes that they are still surrounded by spectators. 'Dammit… guess we don't have a choice.' He raises his hand up into the sky and it starts glowing a familiar blue.

Chad and Leomon watch the flying fireball engulf Ayame, but instead of hearing a scream of agony, they only heard two words: "Dragon Wheel!" The flaming attack of Leomon instantly dissipated when colliding with Ayame's most powerful champion attack. The spectators were now very shocked at her digivolution.

Ayame smirks at Leomon, "You look surprised. Did you really think that would do me in? If that was your best shot, I'd give up now if I were you."

Leomon growled fiercely as both of his fists became enveloped in the same flame as he fired off the same attack in rapid succession. Ayame scoffs, 'Such recklessness… I _really_ don't feel like having injured bystanders pinned on me' "Foxtail inferno!" The tips of Ayame's tails were enveloped in mysterious blue flames that seemed to dance on the tips. She then flicks her tails to launch them, each piercing Leomon's attacks and still heading for the target, straight-on. Leomon was taken by surprise as each of the nine fireballs hit him and knocked him back into Chad.

Before they landed, Leomon had already de-digivolved back into Elecmon and was unconscious. Ayame scoffs again and de-digivolves, "That was way too simple." Takami returns her to his digivice. Chad rolls Elecmon off of him and stands up. "You think you're all that?! You just got lucky, that's all!"

"It seems that you lost all on your own, Chad. Fate didn't need to intervene." A feminine voice said behind him that sent chills up everyone's spines.

"Uh, m-Ms. Izuru, I didn't see you there…" Chad mumbles as he turns around to face her, quickly recalling Elecmon.

"Well from the way you charge into battle so hot-headed, it's no wonder you didn't. You should know better than to cause disturbances. Kitchen duty, four days for you."

"Y-yes, ma'am…" Chad looks down at the ground, unable to hide his shame after being punished in public.

"As for you, Mr. Kusajiki …" Takami unconsciously stands up a little straighter, "I need to see you in my office after lunch." Takami nods and quickly hurries off to lunch as the crowd disperses.

* * *

Later, outside Izuru's office

Takami approached the door slowly, wondering what awaited him across this three-inch window of safety. He opens the door and enters quietly. "Thank you for finally joining us, Mr. Kusajiki." Izuru says as she shuffles some papers on her desk. In two chairs awaited Rua and Suri. Takami takes his place on the left of Suri.

"Now that I have you all here, I'd like to get some things off my chest. First of all, the campgrounds have gotten a little more rambunctious, as Takami saw earlier. Disputes between students have caused some to form groups among peers, aka: gangs. I'd advise you to all watch your backs… and do not get involved with them." They all nod quickly.

"Next, I'd like to… congratulate you three on your performance in the digital world. You exceeded the mission standards, as well as surprising me."

"How'd we do that…?" Suri asks quietly.

"You all recall your digivolutions? Normally, students get a special card that enables digivolution via modification."

"You mean like what Chad did earlier?" Takami asks.

"Precisely. Using that method is going to get you a somewhat weaker digivolution. Using digisoul is the very essence of a partner and their Digimon, so the bond is stronger, making the digivolution stronger as well. You follow so far?" They all nod slowly.

"And finally… I think it's about time your group become official." Izuru turns her chair and opens up a door to a storage closet.

"What do you mean by official…?" Takami asks before getting hit in the face by a bunch of clothes.

"Since this is a branch of DATS, you'll have to look the part as well. This is a DATS standard uniform, shirt and pants are optional but the jacket is a must. I'm putting my faith in you that you will keep these grounds conflict-free without letting it get to your head. Is this understood?"

Team Falx agrees then exits Izuru's office. 'Such interesting kids… especially that Takami Kusajiki.'

* * *

Chapter 11 is done! Re-

Dorumon: How come I got no screen time?!

Me: Because I didn't feel like putting you in right now. You'll have your time in the sun… eventually

Dorumon: Bull crap!

Izuru: Hello? Is this thing on?

Suri: How'd you get down here?

Izuru: I followed the cables leading from the speakers to here.

Takami: Rua, you said you hid the cables!

Rua: I did! … Above ground!

Takami: ugh… read and review


	12. A New Arrival

Well the art contest... epically failed XD oh well, perhaps another time. well lets get to it already; NOW PRESENTING CHAPTER ... 12!

Disclaimer: still dont own Digimon... but characters are mine

* * *

Several days after their last encounter, Team Falx had been dispatched on another mission. They were sent to a port near the edge of town to look into a disturbance. There were rumors of ships being mysteriously sunken by unknown things within the water. Although ships were far from shore, it should still be too shallow for any vessel to submerge undetected. A few locals report in on seeing mysterious shadows soon after a ship is sunken in the water. DATS believes that it is a digimon that causes the ships to sink.

Team Falx has a problem though; none of them had digimon with aquatic capabilities. So they may have to resort to baiting out the digimon into an open area for a quick attack before it re-submerges. After reaching the town docks, they proceed to the land that is nearest to the water.

"Okay guys, what do you think we should do to reel in a fish?" Takami asks while using his digivice as sonar for underwater activity.

"Depends entirely on what case we're dealing with," Rua responds.

Suri turns to him, "You mean you can _guess_ what's down there?"

"Well from the reports from the ships sinking, the damage is way too huge for your typical Divermon. I think we may be dealing with a-"

"Guys, I got some activity! Half a mile out and closing, fast..." They all release their digimon from their digivices. "This is gonna be a big one too!"

Nearby, an explosion from a ship's hull disturbs the water. Dorumon fires a Metal Burst at the figure slinking away from the disaster zone, but was unsure if he hit it or not. Apparently, he got its attention, since it was snaking its way underwater towards them.

"Here it comes…" Rua says quietly as it emerges with a loud roar. A long snake-like creature launches itself from the water into the air. Getting a better look at the digimon, they all note the sea-serpent appearance.

"Seadramon?! How the heck can a Seadramon first of all, hide itself in a port and second of all: why didn't anyone notice a giant sea serpent entering our coast?!" Suri yells as Dorumon fires off another Metal Burst.

"Maybe an underwater cove had a digital gate open in it?" Takami asks.

"That's possible, but how do we get rid of it from here? That thing is out of our reach, since its flying now." Rua adds.

Suri smiles, "You guys leave this one to me." After that, Dorugamon launches itself from the cliff towards the raging serpent. A Hyper Dash was successful and knocked Seadramon further from the coast. While recovering, Seadramon shot off a flurry of projectiles from its mouth while yelling, "Icicle Barrage!" The shards of ice flew in a huge range from Seadramon spinning so wildly; some aiming at the shore, some at Dorugamon and many towards the shore. More ships were struck with the projectiles and started sinking.

Takami, Rua and their partners decided to let Suri handle the enemy while they go on a rescue mission. They run back to the docks and undock in two boats meant for cruising, picking up any wayward survivors in the water while fending off any more attacks Seadramon missed. Eventually, all passengers on the sunken ships were safe on land and unhurt. Although their job was nearly over, Rua still had a feeling of something else was at work here and went to investigate a cove as Dorugamon finished off Seadramon.

* * *

In a secluded cove

To keep on guard, Rua walked side-by-side with Jinsa in his champion form. In a room full of spackled lights and shadows with a large pool of water in the center of it, they stopped. "Come out already, there's no use hiding." Rua called out, hoping the lurking enemy would show themselves.

A pair of red eyes appears in a corner of the room. "Will you look at this? It seems a child and his puppy lost their way," a deep voice rasped as the shadowed figure stood up and walked into the light from the hole in the ceiling. Its appearance looked most like a dark angel; the wings were tattered and a shade of a dark midnight blue; two large horns from the sides of its head and several sharp fangs glistening from the light; the face was a pale cobalt, contrasting its torso and hands that matched its wings; on its chest was a crimson demon sigil.

"Who the crap are you?! Rua asked, shocked at such a thing lurking just below a port. Jinsa is now baring his fangs and growling lowly as the dark creature circled around them.

"My name? I am known as Devimon. Now what brings you to my lovely abode?" Sarcasm was seeping from his responses, obviously not taking them very seriously.

"Why are you here?!" Jinsa barked at Devimon, but was ignored.

"Isn't it obvious? He's the one who put the Seadramon in the port," Rua answered.

"And just _how_ do you know it was my doing, boy?" Devimon asked.

"The readings on my digivices were flipping out from an anomaly that made a digital gate…"

Jinsa blinked and looked down slightly, "A digimon that can open up digital gates voluntarily…?"

"My time here is short and I must take my leave for now. You even get to see an example of what I am talking about." Devimon raised his hand and tapped a claw on the wall next to him. At first, a horizontal line formed, then the wall twisted and distorted and opened vertically, making a portal that looked similar to a digital gate. He then stepped into the portal and laughed maliciously it closed behind him, leaving Rua and Jinsa in silence.

Elsewhere, in a large dark room, Devimon is kneeling before a throne made of various skulls and bones with a silhouetted figure sitting in it.

"so what do you have to report from your little excursion?" the clearly feminine voice asked from the throne.

"DATS is indeed still around, yet they send mere children instead of actual officers," Devimon responded, determined to not make eye contact. The figure opened up here eyes, which were a dark glowing purple.

"Very well, you are dismissed…."

* * *

A/N

End of chapter… what chapter are we on, 12? Okay end of chapter 12

Me: well that wasn't too bad

Suri: Why was I left alone with the snake thing?

Me: because I felt like it

Suri: you son of a-

Ayame: *covers Suri's mouth* Read and review please!


	13. Mirage Castle

Chapter 13

In a suburban part of Osaka, a girl in a simple white dress with a yellow ribbon tied around her waist was walking down the street with a bag full of groceries. When she turned the corner, the cement wall distorts and sucks her into it, not even giving her a chance to yelp in surprise and closes just as quickly as it opened.

* * *

Back at camp, Rua and Jinsa were describing their encounter with Devimon once more to the rest of Falx.

"How could a digimon open up a digital gate? They're like lightning: unpredictable and uncontrollable…" Ayame asks before their digivices start making a loud beeping noise. Takami picks his up to see if a digimon appeared around here but only a message from DATS Labs. "um' guys, I think someone's wanting our audience…"

* * *

In Izuru's office, Falx enters only to find Izuru pacing behind her desk. She stops her frantic pacing, "We have a situation on hands. As of ten minutes ago, a digital gate opened in a suburban neighborhood in Osaka."

"So what digimon came out?" Suri asks, confused as to why she is so panicked about the situation.

"That's just the thing: nothing came out. In fact, something was pulled_ in_. This will be very problematic if local authorities try to investigate. So your job is to go into the digital world and find the missing person. But before you go… I have something to show you." She calms herself and leads them into a room in the camp's hidden lab and hands each of them a case.

"…What are we supposed to do with these?" Rua asked.

"Open them and pick up the object inside with your digi-soul activated," Izuru stated while watching with some curiosity.

They all shrug and fumble around with the boxes, trying to figure out how to open it. After some thought, Takami activates his digi-soul. After tapping the case, it opens to reveal a hilt of something. "What the..?" Takami picks the hilt up with his hand covered in digi-soul. His digi-soul travels to the hilt immediately and then disappears. Moments later, a long blade shot out from one end, startling Takami and making it a katana. A similar thing happened to Suri, except she had two hilts from which two shorter blades extended from, forming twin daggers. Rua's hilt elongated until it was nearly as tall as him, with a blade at the tip and segmented itself, making a naginata.

From their newly formed weapons the hands touching them were enveloped in the same color as their digi-soul, and travelled along their bodies, under their DATS uniforms. A plate of material that felt like leather formed under jackets and spread to their arms, thighs and shins. After the armor set into place, the glowing stopped and left the armor, leaving intricate patterns on it with their digi-soul as the background color. Takami's armor was covered in swirls with "Fox" written in Japanese, Rua's was ripples with "Wolf" and Suri's was waves with "Dragon". Izuru nods happily as they look themselves over.

"Good, the Aegis program is functioning!"

"Aegis program? If this is supposed to be armor, then it doesn't seem very durable," Rua said while twisting and turning to get a better look at himself.

"The beauty of the Aegis is that it's much stronger than it looks. After your last trip to the digital world, it was confirmed that our missions are getting more overwhelming. So the boys down in the lab finished up the Aegis program to keep injuries to a minimum."

Takami looked warily at his katana. "Isn't it true that weapons from the human world… you know, _kill_ digimon?"

Izuru nods and responds with, "Yes they do, but the Aegis isn't a typical weapon. Instead of using materials from our world, the Aegis forms itself from the essence of digimon itself: digi-soul. So think of them as digital armor; whenever you manage to defeat a digimon with your weapons, it will be like your digimon defeated the opponent. Rest assured, they have been put through strenuous testing and are safe. Now pack up your supplies, your missions gonna be in a hot area…"

* * *

Falx materialized in a dusty, but lively town filled with a plethora of digimon species: Jijimon selling oddly colored steamed buns, Starmon and Deputymon keeping an eye out at their watch posts and small Bearmon playing outside while their parents watched from a shady porch. But one thing that stood out was the wagons that were pulled by digi-gnomes that formed together to look like horses.

"This is _definitely_ different from what I expected from a town here!" Rua said while looking around. The civilians didn't seem too surprised to see humans, but their Aegis made them stand out and drew a couple of stares.

Suri pokes takami's sides to get his attention. "Don't you think we should use some of the mission's budget to buy something less… ostentatious? Not like a completely new outfit, but something that won't heat up as fast." She wiggles uncomfortably, adjusting her Aegis on her back, being warmer than she prefers.

"And from the reports on where the kidnapped girl might be, we should get one of those carriage things, unless we want to walk three days… in _that_ direction," Rua adds while pointing out into the savanna.

Takami pondered the situation and then tossed a small pouch of jingling contents at Rua. "You both have a point; Rua take these bits and get one of those carriage things. Try talking them down if the price is too high."

"What's in here?" he asks while shaking the bag.

"Someone in the lab gave us these bags; they said Bits are currency in the digital world. So Suri and I will get some covering outfits and meet you at the town gate. Agreed?"

Suri is walking brusquely through town, dodging various digimon. Takami is trying to follow her, but wonders if she even knows where she is going. She suddenly waves back to him and points towards a building. When he catches up to her, it was actually a clothing store.

"Did you know that was here?" he asks.

"Nope, not at all," she responds.

"Then… how did you find-"

"It's a girl thing. I don't understand it either, I just use it." She enters the shop and goes directly to white robes for desert travel, three shelves from the back and surrounded by fancy hats.

'Women are weird…' He walks in after her.

Rua was combing through the town, looking for some sort of stand or stable where the carriages were rented out. He finally got tired and asked someone, and was pointed to the gates where a SuperStarmon was standing.

"Howdy. How can I help you, yougun?" the shiny digimon asked with a western drawl.

Rua had to squint in order to face him, due to the unrestricted sun. "Um, yeah, I was wondering if this was where I could get one of those carriage things…"

"You've come to the right place. 'Fortunately, some Goblinmon went and hijacked the latest shipmen' and wen' inta hidin' some'ere in the alleys. If you can get that back, you can have one fer free."

Rua sighs and turns back to the town, 'Why is nothing ever easy?'

* * *

Back at the shop, Takami and Suri exit, now dressed in a white cloak that covers most of their body. "Okay, now where's the gate?" Takami asks.

Suri shrugs, "How should I know?"

"How can you _NOT_ know?! You're a girl, aren't you?!"

"I'M NOT GOOD WITH DIRECTIONS, DAMMIT! Go ask someone where it is."

Takami crosses his arms, "Nope, I'm sure we can find it. C'mon, I think it's this way." He starts walking in a random direction.

Suri sighs, "Typical male behavior; can't bring himself to ask directions…"

Some random alley

"So… this is the gate, huh?" Suri says rhetorically.

"Okay fine, I don't know where we are!" Takami throws up his arms and turns to another alley. "What was that?"

From that alley, several Goblinmon emerge, brandishing clubs with nails in them. "Who the heck are you two?!" One of them asks.

"Those shiny guys sent you to take back the box, eh? Well you're not gonna!" another one yelled out, pointing his club at Takami and Suri before charging them.

'Well now's a good time as any…' Instead of moving out of the way, Takami sweep kicks the charging Goblinmon into a wall, making a crater.

The other Goblinmon looked a little shocked at first but shrugged it off and charged all at once. Before they realized it, Takami was holding a large piece of wood that was lying by the wall and smacked them all at once, like a flyswatter.

"Izuru didn't mention that our Aegis can boost our physical abilities too!" He then scoops them all up on the wood and tosses them halfway across town.

Suri went around the corner to see what they were obsessing over. She found a large box with an official looking seal on it. "I guess we could drop this off at one of those Starmon outposts, right?" she lifts the box and has a look of surprise, not expecting it to be so light.

* * *

As Takami and Suri manage to find their way out of the alley, they ran into Rua.

"What's with the box?" Rua asks.

"Some Goblinmon lurking in an alley were trying to protect it. But they weren't that big of a deal," Takami responds. "These Aegis' really pack a punch!"

"Well I'm glad you did! Because that just so happens to be the missing cargo of carriages!"

After returning the shipment to SuperStarmon, Falx set out into the desert in their rented carriage. The inside of the carriage was surprisingly high-tech; including comfortable seats, maps, and even an auto-pilot feature to put in coordinates for a location. The auto-pilot seemed to not understand why anyone would want to venture out in the middle of nowhere, according to the coordinates they gave it, but it went nonetheless.

* * *

As they drew closer to their target, they noticed a change in the terrain. About a mile away from the coordinates, it was like stepping into an entirely new place; the outside scene went from an arid savanna to a fertile land with a large castle.

"… Either the heat is getting to me or that castle just appeared out of nowhere," Suri points out.

"Well someone's definitely in there, a lot of someones. Now to figure out which one is a human," Takami adds while fiddling with his digivice's map, trying to filter out the digimon. "Got it! Okay, there's one person up on the… second floor of that castle in the northwestern wing; and I think I have a plan of how to get up there…"

* * *

Inside main corridor on first floor

Falx was able to enter the castle without any resistance. The hall was full of large suits of armor holding large swords. At the end of the hall, they could spot the spiral staircase that lead up to the second floor. Rua looks at the suits of armor, trying to figure out why they look so familiar.

All of a sudden, Suri yelps in surprise, her foot going down further than expected into a secret panel. "I don't think this will end well…" she said as she pulls her foot out.

As if operated by an alarm switch, eyes appeared in helmets of all the suits of armor in the room. They first shifted in their positions, and unsheathed all of their swords, making their way to the intruders.

"I knew these things looked familiar! Knightmon, an … ultimate?! Guys, we can't afford to let fights get in the way or else we'll never make it to her and have enough strength to get out!" Rua said as he leapt to the left to avoid a Knightmon's slash.

"Well there is one way out of this: up and over!" Takami said as he leapt high enough to land on one of the Knightmon's head. The Knightmon looked baffled as Takami started leaping on their heads like stepping stones. Rua and Suri caught on to his idea and followed him up to the staircase and quickly made their way up to the second floor.

* * *

At the top of the staircase, there was a large circular room with passageways spitting off in three different directions. Falx decided to split up to search for the missing person, covering more ground in a shorter amount of time. Rua and Takami seemed to have little luck, since their passageways lead to a maze. Suri, on the other hand, had a straightforward passage that looked like a holding wing.

'Looks like I have to find her,' she said to herself as she reached the end of the hallway. In one of the cells was the same girl that was abducted, but looked slightly roughed up, most likely from being abducted so quickly. She was gazing out of the window, wondering what would happen next to her. "Hey, are you okay?" Suri asks the girl.

The girl turns to her, startled from a voice that sounded human. "W-who are you?"

"My name is Suri, a DATS agent, and we're here to get you out of here!"

The girl stands and approaches the bars, "That's nice and all, but how am I supposed to get out of-" she stopped talking as Suri bent the bars apart, making enough space for her to easily walk through. "How did you do _**THAT**_?!"

"We came prepared, now let's go, my team mates are waiting."

"Surely you jest," a mysterious booming voice said from a staircase near the last pair of cells. A large digimon clad in white armor and a lance emerged from the shadows. "I do not know how you got in here, but I know how you will _leave_," he said while pointing his lance towards Suri.

"Well we got in because the front door was kinda open…" Suri responds while squeezing themselves out of the bar and making their way down the hall.

The armored digimon slammed his lance down on the ground and yelled, "You shall not pass!!" A wall spawned from the floor, cutting off their path from where Suri entered.

Suri sighs, "Why do they always fight?" Suri holds her digivice toward the enemy, "Dorumon, realize!" Dorumon appears in a swirl of data from her digivice. Suri wasted no time and promptly digivolved Dorumon to champion.

The armored digimon laughed, "You think this petty lizard will be able to defeat _ME_, Bishop Chessmon?! I will make thine death swift! Feel the wrath of my-" Bishop Chessmon's rant was cut short as Dorugamon launches a Metal Cannon in mid-rant. Bishop Chessmon uses its shield to deflect it to the wall in the girl's former cell. "Insolent child, how dare you interrupt me?!" He yelled as he pointed his lance at Suri and Dorugamon. "Face my wrath: Bishop Laser!" A blast of white light races toward their position and makes a tremendous explosion. "How does thy like my laser?!" He bursts into a victorious laugh and turns his back as the dust starts to settle.

"Would you be offended if I said I wasn't impressed?" Dorugamon asks from the dust cloud, unfaltering.

Bishop Chessmon pivots to face them. "How could a simple champion level take a point blank blast from my-" His eyes widened as the dust finally settled to reveal a translucent purple shield in front of the trio. Dorugamon looked a little shaken; not knowing what Suri had in plan and Suri was standing calmly. However, the captured girl fainted from the shock and was currently being held up by Suri. It formed the shape of an arc in order to put less pressure on the shield and deflect it to the walls around it, which had deep gashes in it.

"Digi-modify: Heavenly Arc Shield." Suri says happily as she twirls the cards between her fingers, "Looks like you aren't that strong of an Ultimate after all, not breaking my shield."

Dorugamon gives the shield another look-over, "When'd ya get this?"

"Well there was this neat little class at camp where we got to design new modification cards unique to the partner and digimon. You see, I-"

"ENOUGH OF YOUR INCIDENT BABBLING!" Their clearly annoyed enemy yelled, "Your shield may deflect a blast, but can it take the full power of my lance?!" He points his lance at the center of the shield and charges them. Right before making contact, the unbroken part of a wall suddenly launched out and jettisons across the hall. The trio turns to what just made a hole and find none other than Takami standing there.

"And Ayame said kicking down walls isn't how you go through mazes," he says to himself then calls back into the dungeon, "Hey Ayame, I found a way out!"

"T-Takami?! What are you doing here?!" Suri asked incredulously.

"Hm? Oh, hi guys! I see you found the girl. Now we can get out of here, right?" Takami walks over the kicked-down wall and hears a loud grunt from under it. "What was that?"

"Well _that_ was a digimon we were troubled with, but he looks unconscious now…"

Ayame soon emerges from the hole and another grunt came from under the wall. "Well at least we got out! The last few times he did that, things kept hitting us back…" Ayame says with a shudder. From under her, the wall jostles back and forth, causing them to climb off before it was hurled out of the hole made by Dorugamon.

"I have had enough of these interruptions! I will not allow- huh?" Bishop Chessmon managed to get from under the wall, only to be lifted up further by Takami. "P-Put me down, you insolent child!"

"If you say so," Takami says with a smirk as he slams their unfortunate opponent into Dorugamon's hole, widening it. After making it around 30 feet in diameter, he tosses the near-unconscious foe from the second floor, only to land in a bunch of bushes. Takami dusts off his hands with a smile, "Well he's out for a while. We should leave before Rua takes off without us."

Suri's eye twitches after observing poor Bishop Chessmon in the bushes. 'Did the Aegis really boost his strength by that much…?' "Wait, you saw Rua? I thought we all split up?"

"That maze led us to a dungeon, so we started breaking down walls in the opposite direction; that way, one of us was bound to find an exit and the other one would find you!"

Suri slaps her forehead with her palm, "Well what about the knightmon?"

"You mean them?" Takami points behind her to a flood of charging armor down the hall. "We should really do something about them."

Suri hands the girl to Takami and climbs on Dorugamon's back, "Hold her for me, and call back Ayame while you're at it."

Takami puts Ayame back into his digivice inquisitively as Dorugamon faces the knightmon. "You aren't planning on facing them all at once, now are you?"

Dorugamon smirks as he starts firing off a barrage of Metal Bursts at the ceiling and floor, causing them to crumble. The closer and closer the knightmon came, the more they both crackled. He then turns and spreads his wings as Suri grabs Takami's free hand and they all glide out of the hole previously made by Takami. The floor crumbled just after they left and Dorugamon steers them to land on a familiar carriage, not being able to fly properly with three people on his back.

Takami sets the girl down inside and jumps around victoriously and laughing, "That was a little touch-and-go, but still awesome nonetheless!"

Suri sighs and shakes her head watching him, 'Such an idiot, but he's still our leader for a reason…' she gazes back at the castle as it disappears into the horizon before joining the girl and Rua inside the carriage, soon followed by Takami and Dorugamon.

* * *

A/N

Well there's chapter 13 for ya. Stay tuned for chapter 14, cause someone new will be gracing us with their presence!

*group gasp*

Read and review!


	14. Journey to Helia

Last time on Ayame's Chronicles, we left off with Falx rescuing a kidnapped girl from a castle of Knightmon. The Aegis, a program finally launched for testing to protect a DATS agent in the field, made their mission much easier from boosting their natural abilities. Now, let's get back to the story, but back at camp (cause I can't imagine what the travel back would be like =D)

* * *

Back in DATS camp, Suri and Rua went to give a full report on their mission, expenses and any damage done. Thankfully, the only one who needed to go to the medical ward was the rescued girl. She seemed to be a little flustered from the ordeal, but she has calmed down once she regained consciousness in the ward. Takami was now on his way to deliver a report to Izuru about the Aegis. After searching around camp, he found her in the same room as their patient.

"Oh, hello Takami, what do you need?" Izuru asks, turning away from the sleeping patient.

"Well I came to tell you the Aegis works great! It boosted me to do all kinds of stuff like kicking down walls, playing hopscotch on some Knightmon's heads, kicking down walls…"

Izuru smiles and nods but then her face shifts to a quizzical look. "… WHY were you kicking down walls?"

Takami shrugs, "Couldn't find a door, and it's a more dramatic entry!"

His remark made Izuru burst in a fit of giggles. "You kids sure are something…" She stops giggling and stand by the patient's bed. "Although there's something odd about this girl you rescued. She wasn't confused or frightened when seeing digimon. Her name is Alacia, but that's all she remembers; she's got a bit of amnesia. Now I have some matters to attend to, so keep her company for now." Izuru leaves without giving him a chance to respond.

"Hey wait! What do I do if she-"he pauses as he hears a yawn from behind. When he turns around, the girl known as Alacia was staring at him with her wide, bright green eyes. "Oh, I woke you up, didn't I?" He asks gingerly while rubbing the back of his head.

"Who are you?" she asks, sitting up to get a better look at him in his mysterious armor.

"Me? I'm…" he pauses for temporarily forgetting his name, "it's… uh…"

She giggles with a hand over her mouth. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Uh."

Takami mentally kicks himself, "No! my name is Takami, Takami Kusajiki of Team Falx," he responds stiffly.

"Were you the one who saved me?"

"My team and I got you out of there in one piece," he says proudly, puffing out his chest slightly.

Alacia giggles again, "It's like I had my team of knights in armor, right?"

"You could say that," Takami says uneasily, "so, how's your amnesia?"

"My …what?" She asks blankly.

"It's worse than I thought!" he yells, but Alacia only giggles again.

"Just kidding, I remember I was on my way home before that digital gate opened up near me. Next thing I know, I was in that weird castle's courtyard and the Knightmon just so happened to all appear at once there."

Takami stares at her, "And you weren't confused about the Knightmon?"

Alacia shakes her head. "Nope, don't know why, but I felt used to it… Do you have a digimon?" He nods happily and unclips his digivice from his waist, which she stares at. "Do you mind if I hold your… thingy for a second; it looks familiar." Takami hands over his digivice to Alacia and it starts beeping rapidly.

A mechanical voice said, "Error 592-JS: Target's memory has been corrupted by encountering a digital gate, repairing." A series of numbers appear on the black screen ad shine a bright light at Alacia, making her eyes widen before she drops the digivice on her lap. "Damage repaired, returning to main screen.

Takami is baffled at what just happened and picks up his digivice. "Whoa… you okay there?"

She rubs the sides of her head, "I'm fine… but I could really use some fresh air…"

Takami helps her out of bed and leaves temporarily for her to dress herself. He re-enters and supports her weight as she stumbles outside, still getting the feeling back in her legs.

* * *

Outside, center of camp with Suri and Rua passing by

"Alacia, this is the rest of Team Falx. Here is Suri, who you met before, and Rua, our lackey," he gestures to each of them with a smirk.

Rua responds with a punch that shattered the ground beneath Takami, but his Aegis made it feel like a light tap. Alacia giggles as they erupt into a fist fight with lots of bickering. Suri sighs with a smile and leans on a megaphone speaker pole. "They may be idiots, but they're _my_ idiots, at least."

Alacia turns to Suri, "Were you the one with the flying lizard thing… Dorugamon?"

Suri nods, "Yes, but his name is Dalc, and please don't call him a flying lizard thing; he's a _fuzzy_, flying lizard thing." She smiles causing Dalc to complain about her comment from her digivice.

Alacia smiles and uses her best sparkly-eyes impression, " Do you mind if you and Dalc take me to town to pick up something important please? I promise I'll be quick~"

Suri shrugs, "Sure, why not?" She turns to the scrapping duo, "Okay guys, Alacia and I gotta go somewhere, try not killing each other 'til I get back." With that, she and Alacia board the Dalc Airline Express and fly off the mountain, back to town.

* * *

Takami, Rua and their digimon were waiting around in their cabin for around 45 minutes before the girls return. Alacia enters first, wearing a less tattered outfit of a verdant green top and a matching skirt with shorts.

"We're back! And I got what I was looking for!" Alacia dances into the room happily, cradling something in her hands.

"And just what _is_ it?" Rua asks. He and Takami's eyes widen as she held it out.

"Lunamon, realize!" From a sky blue digivice Alacia held comes a swirl of data. When the scatters, a small bunny-like creature appeared; its fur was mainly white except on the majority of its four rounded ears. It had a necklace of a crescent moon, similar to the larger replica of the one on its pearl colored dress.

"Greetings to you all," Lunamon said with a bow of respect.

"I can see why Digimon didn't frighten you… so did you get all of your memory back?" Takami asks while poking one of Lunamon's ears, causing them to twitch. It startled Takami, but Lunamon only smiles and giggles.

Alacia nods happily again, "It's all back and I must thank you all for your efforts to liberate me!" she spreads her arms and twirls around on her heels, "especially you… Takami…" She stops her twirl and exits with Lunamon and another giggle, leaving Takami confused, Suri and Ayame suspicious and the others snickering.

* * *

The next day, Falx is assigned to escort Alacia back home. They are dropped off at her temporary residency back in town. Alacia exits her apartment complex with one large suitcase and a large carry-on bag.

"Okay that's everything so let's get going already!" She says, tossing her bag to Rua and gives Takami her suitcase.

Rua shifts her bag onto his back, "So where do you live exactly?"

"Helia," Alacia answers, not facing him. Confusion plagued the human member's faces.

"Isn't Helia that big city on some island kingdom, west of the Shira providence?" Dalc asks while scratching his head, going over a virtual map in his brain.

"My family and I live_ in_ the digital world. DATS don't really know about people there, since it's too far from their teleporting range. So Ms. Izuru told me to use this… device thing in my bag to extend the range to Helia… So let's go!" She closes her eyes briefly before lifting up one of her hands to tap the air. Rua's eyes widen as the air did something very familiar; a horizontal line distorted and opens vertically to form a doorway to a portal, similar to a digital gate.

"How did you do that?!" Rua yells while pointing.

"I can explain on the way, now let's go through before it closes!" Alacia enters the portal and continues walking as if there was an invisible sidewalk to the other side.

* * *

After reaching the other side of the portal, they arrived in a large port, full of bustling digimon loading and unloading packages on and off massive ships. From a distance, the water looks sky blue, but upon closer inspection, one could make out the tiny bits of data that flowed just like water. Alacia leads Falx onto a ship that was making a return trip to the Shira Kingdoms. They get settled in a cabin and wait for the boat's departure.

"Now what were you saying before we left?" Alacia asks while turning to Rua.

"I was wondering how you did that portal thing."

"Almost everyone in Helia can do that. It's rare for a person from Helia to _not_ be able to do it."

Rua's eyes shift down for a moment then look back up, "What about Digimon?"

Alacia shakes her head, "Nope, only humans. Something dealing with the constant influence of data at birth; so our organic body is able to separate data, even enough to open up rifts to the real world, like you saw me do before. Why do you ask?"

"So it's out of the question for a digimon to do it at all? From one of our recent missions, one of the rouges we saw were a Devimon using the same method to escape into the digital world," Takami asks, to Alacia's shock

"But if that Devimon could do it, that means…"Alacia says while looking down.

"Devimon isn't a digimon, or at least not all of him," Suri interjects.

Ayame looks up from the corner she was in, "Is that possible? I mean, how else could something look like… that?"

"I have a theory," Dalc starts, "he could have another origin besides the normal digi-eggs, like us." All the digimon's eyes widen and turn to him. "He could have come from the Dark area…"

Rua blinks in confusion, "What's the Dark Area?"

"The Dark Area is like a virus field; you enter it, you become corrupted, causing it to alter anything poor enough to enter it on a genetic level. It's the reason why you can find more sinister versions of a digimon's evolution cycle like a Skull Greymon or Black Wargreymon," Jinsa explains, "but the most important factor is: if you aren't strong enough it will remove a digimon's core, which is like a soul to humans, and the old you is gone, forever."

Alacia looks down, "So the Devimon… is someone who went in the Dark Area and came back out?"

"Well let's do Devimon a favor and restrain him the next time we see him! Our digivices can correct errors in data, right?" Takami asks energetically. Gaining their attention and lifting their spirits slightly, they all agree and sit back to (try and) enjoy their river voyage.

* * *

The human members of Falx stumble off the ship, holding their stomachs. Alacia and the digimon were fine, since they weren't strangers to water travel. After their stomachs stopped churning, Alacia leads them up some cobbled stairs that went from the base level of the harbor to a large stone bridge at the top. From the top of the stairs, they could make out a large city in the middle of a crystal blue lake. While walking on the marble bridge, they noted a lot of smaller boats sailing around the city.

* * *

In the middle of the town

The town was lively with both people and digimon of all ages conversing, selling wares, playing, and enjoying each other's company. Many of the citizens greet Alacia back from her trip and a shop owner even offers them a sample of freshly steamed buns. Suri was looking all around town, curious as to how this town was so docile.

Takami was absently looking around at some of the houses they pass while chomping down on his bun. Alacia stops to look in the window of yet another store they pass and Takami bumps into her. He abruptly apologizes, and then pauses as he turns around. The next thing he knew, he had drawn his katana halfway out of its sheathe, blocking a slash from a burly looking older man. He too was wielding a katana, but was dressed in formal looking robes of black, white and gold designs.

"What the hell's wrong with you?!" Takami barks at him, kicking the man in the stomach to put some distance between them, fully drawing his katana. He was expecting for the man to keel over in agony from the Aegis boosting his kick, but was shocked when the man only grunted and slides to a stop.

"Impressive reflexes, what's your name, boy?" The man asks while stroking his medium-length chestnut brown beard.

"Takami Kusajiki, what's it to you?! And why are you attacking me?"

The man gets down into a stance to lunge, "We'll see about that!" He then leaps surprisingly high for a human with his blade held high. Takami leapt out of the way as he crashes into the ground, making a small crater. From the dust cloud of the impact, a blade launches toward Takami, who uses his katana to deflect it. What he doesn't expect was that it was only part of the mysterious man's sword connected to a long chain.

Takami struggles trying to free his sword from the chains, but then decides to give the chain a strong Aegis-boosted yank and sends the man flying towards him. When he gets close enough, the man receives a punch to the jaw and releases his sword from shock and goes hurdling into a wall. Before he gets the chance to even stand up, Takami is standing right over him with his blade at the downed man's throat. "I ask you again: who are you and what do you want?!"

The man simply smiles and grabs the tip of his sword, plucking it from his hands as he stands up. When he gets up, he delivers a quick palm thrust to Takami's chest, sending him back over to his teammates. "My name is Falenas, Commander Frey Falenas of the Helia Blades," Frey flashes Takami a huge smile and tosses his weapon back to him, "and you are truly Takami Kusajiki."

"What makes you think I wouldn't be me?" Takami asks while catching his sword then turns to his teammates, "and why didn't you guys join in?"

"I told them it wouldn't be wise to intervene," Alacia responds.

Takami looks utterly confused as Frey comes over to pat his head. "Now you all follow me, we have a few things to discuss." Frey starts walking through the town to a large peninsula of formal looking buildings.

* * *

After passing most of the opulent buildings, they reached a large palace. It looked as if it was carved out of marble bricks; the roof was covered in flattened gold that matched the massive doorframe that lead to the foyer. Frey proceeds to lead them through a large room that has pairs of people standing on both sides of their walkway, clad in the same armor as Frey. When the group reaches the end of their walkway, large doors open as one of the awaiting guards announces their arrival. "Presenting His Highness, The Commander and Princess Alacia," boomed the old man with a white beard almost as long as his halberd he held.

Takami's eyes widen as he turns to Alacia who smiles sheepishly at him, giving the "Didn't I mention that? Oh… really? Well I'm telling you now!" impression. Through the doors sat a large throne with a woman dressed in fancy looking robes and a crown that seemed to hover just above her head. Her hair was a silvery white and contrasted how young she looked; her face was soft and her gaze made Takami want to stand stiffly and melt at the same time.

"Welcome home, Alacia. I hope you had a safe journey." She rises up from her throne and pulls Alacia into a hug, making her blush. "Are you all her escorts?"

"Mom, cut it out… you're embarrassing me…" Alacia mumbles into her mother's seemingly infinite robes. Frey bows and exits the room, closing the door behind him.

Takami steps forward, "We just came with her to make sure she arrived alright, and to deliver this device to you from DATS." He pulls out the container holding the device from his bag on his back. He also did not look directly _at_ the woman, fearing he might offend in some way.

"DATS agents?" the woman asks while releasing Alacia from a death hug and approaches Takami, "You're awfully young to be field agents, so you must be talented. I also assume you all got Alacia out of some predicament and she wants to return the favor?"

Takami blinks in surprise, wondering how she figured everything out so quickly. "You could say that. My name is Takami Kusajiki, by the way," he turns sideways to introduce his teammates, "and this is Rua and Suri. Together we are the Falx Squadron of DATS." Falx then bows to her.

The woman's eyes focused on Takami. "Kusajiki, you say? That's… interesting. Well I am Ira Falenas, Ruler of the Queendom of Helia. Now please make yourself at home and join us for dinner later this evening." Ira dismisses Falx from her throne room and gives them freedom to meander around her palace.

* * *

Team Falx divided up soon after dismissal; Rua went off to talk more with the Blades as the digimon talk with the Blades' digimon; Suri manages to find her way out to the archery range outside and practices shots while Takami went looking for the kitchen. He eventually winds up in the middle of a quiet hallway.

"I think I'm lost now…" he says to himself while scratching his head and turns yet another corner. When he passes by a door, it opens up partially and someone pulls him in quickly and closes the door. Slightly disorientated and shocked, Takami whips his head around for whoever did it. His eyes adjust to the dimmer lighting and reveal none other than Alacia. She was timidly looking down while twirling one of the tips of her shoe into the carpet. "Oh, it's you Alacia! You startled me. Something wrong?"

She says nothing at first and then looks up at him, "I have something very important to ask you. I was hoping if I could come back with you and join Falx."

Takami's face shift to being surprised, "Why would you want that? Isn't your life here fun?"

Alacia walks over to a dresser and stares at Takami in the mirror, "I've grown very tired of the life of a princess and like to venture out; that's why I ran into you guys after the Knightmon incident. I don't get to go out much, due to my parents not liking the idea of their daughter out on her own… But if I go with you all, then it may be different!"

"… Have you brought it up to either one of them yet?" he asks.

"Why yes, she has. She's been asking ever since you left her alone with us," A deep voice answers from the corner. It turns out that Frey was standing there the entire time. "Now we can't let our country's princess go off with foreigners for no apparent reason, so we have to dress it up as a mission. Alacia tells me you had an encounter with a digimon with the ability to open portals like one native to Helia. Your mission, from the Commander of Helia, is to find this digimon, and deliver him back to here, preferably alive. With that said, do you accept?" Takami nods in agreement. "Good, now be a sport and go round up your team to tell them!"

* * *

Falx re-gathers at dinnertime and Takami explains their new mission with no one complaining. Ira provided boarding for Falx for the night and then left in the morning with their two newest recruits: Lunamon and Alacia.

A/N: Now THAT was a long chapter v.v I kept getting stuck at random parts, and here it is several weeks later. But in this time, I got a neat little site for the series, be sure to check out the link: .com/ . Now read and review!


	15. The Dawn Is Rising

In our last chapter, Falx travelled to Helia and somehow returned with two new members of their team, Alacia and her Lunamon! Who knows what will happen with their coming of here? Let is read, shall we?

* * *

Alacia and Suri were strolling around camp, making their way to the lake for a nice dip to cool themselves off. Takami and Rua were called out for another mission and were currently away. When they arrive to the lake, a crowd of people were standing along the shore and fall silent upon their arrival.

"Uh, is this normal around here?" Alacia asks Suri.

Suri sighs, "Only when there's a certain guy involved…" As if on cue, the group opens up to reveal, none other, than Chad.

"Funny, I don't remember inviting you two girls here," Chad said as he walks closer in a t-shirt and shorts with his digivice strapped to them.

"I didn't know the lifeguard was on duty. Idiots need supervision in water or else they may drown," Suri snaps back with a scowl.

Chad frowns, "I don't know what's up with all the newbies this year and their smart mouths but it's about time someone put them in their place…"

"Are you lookin' for a fight? Remember the last time you challenged someone in Falx," Suri says, bringing up memories of Chad's last defeat from Takami.

He scoffs, "Lucky for you, I don't fight dogs, I train them. Meet the newest member of _Ransu (Japanese for Lance for those who don't know)_," he steps to the side to reveal a girl who looked no older than 13. She had long black hair that reached her waist and a blue highlight streak to frame the left side of her face. "this… is Yume."

Akira decides to say nothing and steps forward, clutching her digivice in hand and focusing on Suri. 'Hmmm… Something's different bout that girl… quiet, yet determined. Don't think I can talk her out of it either. Oh well, time to represent-' Suri reaches in her bag for her digivice, '… Uh oh…'

Alicia tilts her head in confusion, "Is something wrong, Suri?"

Suri turns to her halfway and whispers, "I left my digivice back in the cabin since we planned on swimming…"

Yume scowls slightly when Suri has yet to produce her digimon, "Don't tell me someone on the famous Team Falx is scared!" Thinking quickly, Alicia steps forward and yells, "I'll take you on instead, since it'll be new recruit versus new recruit." Yume pulls out her digivice and out comes a Biyomon.

Alicia points out her light-blue digivice and yells, "Hikari, realize!" From her digivice came Lunamon, who was obviously named Hikari. Hikari didn't seem to be in her usual happy-go-lucky attitude when her eyes locked on Yume and her Biyomon.

"Cute pet. Now Biyomon, take it down!" Biyomon leaps toward Hikari while flapping her wings to pick up speed. Hikari stood in a ready position and waited until the last second to leap out of the way. Biyomon circles around and then flies harder to swoop down, but this time would be different. Yume swipes a card through her digivice and yells, "Digi-Modify: Speed boost activate!" Biyomon's plummet gain at least three times the speed and caught Hikari by surprise, tackling her hard enough to make her airborne and land in the lake. Yume laughs in victory as Biyomon circles above her. "Now to make sure you don't get a comeback!" Chad tosses her a card from his pocket, which she slides through her digivice as well.

"Digi-Modify, Digivolution Activate!" As soon as the card left the edge of Yume's digivice, Biyomon is covered in a swirl of data. From the cocoon of data, two large wings expand, followed by a giant bird that resembled a phoenix with abnormally large fangs protruding from its mouth.

Alicia looks up at the large bird and smiles, "Only that much more of a target," her eyes glance at the lake's surface noticing something lurking under it and her hand was covered in her own digisoul, matching her digivice. "Digisoul charge!" she slams her hand down on her digivice and a light comes from under the surface, drawing the large bird's attention.

Yume's eyes widen, "Don't just flap there, attack Birdramon!" Birdramon barely dodges what looks like a rabbit with various antennae protruding from its back leaping out of the water. While still in the air, this bunny lets out a flurry of punches to Birdramon's underside before descending back to the water's surface, landing gracefully.

Alicia smiles as Hikari starts walking to the center of the lake, giving her more room to maneuver, "Birdramon, meet Lekismon, Hikari's champion form." Birdramon pursues Hikari and crosses her wings briefly and then opens them, shooting flames from them and shouting, "Meteor Wing!" Hikari starts taking evasive action, skating on the surface and sharply turning from the shots of flames from above and scoops one of her hands (or paws… whatever) under the water. When she brings it back, a bubble of water surrounds it and starts glowing. Hikari quickly turns around and flings the bubble at Birdramon, "Tsukaikari Bomb (_Tsukaikari meaning 'moonlight'_)!" The bubble rapidly expands as it closes in on the flying target and encloses Birdramon before it has a chance to change direction. Once inside the bubble, spores land on Birdramon, causing its eyes to become heavier and starts going into a dozy nose dive to the lake, only to be greeted with another of Lekismon's attacks. All of the antennae start glowing on the tips and fire off a barrage of light blue arrows and Hikari yells, "Tearingu Arrows!" the onslaught project Birdramon along the surface until it crashes on the shore, promptly de-digivolving and passes out.

Yume stares at the defeated Biyomon and puts her back in the digivice then bolts off into the trees, sniffling softly to herself. Chad scoffs and sighs, "Kids can't do anything right these days… Well I'm outta here, might as well find some other kid to train, someone with more talent than what's-her-name."

His entourage follows him as he leaves and Alicia scoffs while Hikari de-digivolves. "I don't think I like Chad very much…"

"None of us really do..." Suri responds with a sigh as she starts wading in the shoreline waters.

* * *

A/N-

And there goes another chapter! Sorry for taking so long, I just haven't been motivated ^^

Hikari: Finally I get my spotlight! :D

Ayame: Why is your name Hikari?

Hikari: Cause im awesome and cute.

Ayame: But that still doesn't expla-

Hikari: *digivolves and points arrows at Ayame* CAUSE IM AWESOME AND CUTE *demonic roar*

Ayame: o-o'

READ AND REVIEW!


	16. New Menace

Last time in _Ayame's Cronicles,_ Alicia and her partner, Hikari the Lunamon that they were way more than just cute. So that brings Falx's team total of 4 champions to vanquish foes. Whose next on the list? Lets read on and find out~

* * *

On the day after Suri's and Alicia's visit to the pool, Takami and Rua finally wrapped up those pesky reports of their recent expeditions. Around mid-morning, they were informed that their next task was going to be given and to report to Izuru's office.

* * *

In Izuru's office

Izuru turns to them in her swirling chair, "Ah, you all made it on time, I'm glad. Now you all have probably the most important task you've had so far…"

Rua smiles excitedly, "What is it? Hunting down a rouge digimon in town? Deep sea rescue? Oh! Going into a space shuttle and preventing the hacking of the world's satellites by a virus digi-"

"Not at all… Where in the world do you get these sort of things?" Izuru asks.

Suri sighs, "He watches _a lot_ of television… so what do we do?"

"Your job today is…" Izuru suddenly bolts to the door while picking up a tote bag, "monitor the alarms for any abnormal sightings while the staff and I hit the beach! Its summer break ya know!" She giggles and waves, "Toodles, and good luck." Faster than any of them could even form a thought, all the usual scientists packed themselves in various jeeps and began driving off down the mountain.

Takami was at a loss of words and wide-eyed, much like his teams', and a sentence strung through their minds all at once, '…What the hell…?'

* * *

After recovering from the team's shock, they begrudgingly divided up the task of 20 people: Rua was to monitor the camp outside to make sure they didn't all break out into a riot, Suri and Takami watched the alarms of any digimon entering their world while Alicia kept her eye out for any abnormalities in the digital world.

Ayame, along with the other digimon, wander about in the lab to keep their tamer's spirits up. "I couldn't bear doing this all day long…" she says with a yawn.

Suri turned her attention away from the still screen, "Hey, it may not be all that glamorous or exciting, but at least stay vigilant!"

Hikari groans, "But there's nothing happening! We're the action team!"

Dalc smirks, "Hikari should take after her tamer a little more. Alicia hasn't complained once ever since we started!"

Takami gets up and starts walking over to Hikari, "That's true… Hey Alicia, how are you holding up over there?"

"Good, just good…" Alicia drones back, as if in a trance.

Takami raises an eyebrow, "You're that into it, huh? So what's it look- WHAT THE HELL? YOU'RE NOT MONITORING! YOU'RE PLAYING SOLITAIRE!"

Alicia squeaks when he speaks up, "Only 'cause I got bored!"

"What if something happened in the digital world?"

Alicia groans, "It's always the same thing!" She clicks on the minimized window in the corner and turns, "Oh would ya look at that, no readings!"

"Then what's that one red blip in the middle of the screen with question marks coming from it?" Takami points to said dot, getting the coordinates for the upcoming port-travel.

"Oh… that's new… But at least we can get out of here now! Let's go Hikari!" Alicia runs from her chair, grabbing Hikari by the paw-hand, and bolting over to the Digital Dive Chamber.

Rua peeks in at the mini flame trail Alicia left, "What was that about?" Sadly, his question was unanswered as the remaining members zoom past him as well, although Takami had the courteously to turn around and yell, "Alright, its go time! Let's do this!" Rua blinks and thinks, 'Oh my god, they're running out of there… Time to go save everyone!' (I know you kids out there wanna yell out that reference =P)

* * *

Team Falx materialize into a withered forest of dead trees and gray ground

Takami looks around for anything out of the ordinary. "This looks like a disturbing place to spend your day…"

"This actually used to be a luscious forest a few weeks ago," Hikari said while staring off in the distance, "whatever caused this must have sound the alarm earlier, and I don't think it's far ahead." Hikari leads the way in scurrying through the forest.

Alicia looks up at the sky while chasing after her digimon, "Hey Hikari isn't there a village somewhere around here? It feels nostalgic here." Hikari turns back and nods.

"You know exactly where you are, even in the digital world?" Suri asks.

"It comes naturally when you live in Helia. We go all over the place with our ability and so we get accustomed to pretty much everywhere." Alicia responds.

Ayame follows Hikari closer than the rest, feeling uneasy and darting her eyes all over the place. 'Something just isn't right here… It's way too quiet here, even for a forest!' Her ear twitches and she pulls back on Hikari's dress, yanking her back right before a large beast drops from seemingly nowhere, shattering the ground Hikari stood upon not even a quarter of a second ago.

"What the heck is that thing?" Takami yells out while fanning some of the dust from his face. From the small crater the mystery assailant made emerges a Leomon, but something is quite off about it. For one, his skin was a pale grey and all his hair was inverted to black. But the thing that stood out most was the eyes; one full of vitality and fighting spirit, now soulless and without pupils.

While Ayame retreats back with Hikari, Jinsa leaps up front to confront this… Shadow Leomon. Rua quickly digivolves him to champion and Dobermon tackles Shadow Leomon out of the way. Suri pulls out her digivice and readies Dalc, but then a scream comes from a distance. "Whatever that was, you guys go check it out, and we'll be joining you shortly!" Rua yells while Jinsa blocks Shadow Leomon from following them. The rest of Team Falx runs ahead with little objections, knowing all too well how stubborn Dobermon was.

* * *

In the clearing a malevolent pressure descends upon the remaining members of Team Falx. From another path, they see a small child running away from a normal-looking Leomon.

"Ayame, why is that Leomon chasing a kid? I thought they were supposed to be righteous and chivalrous or something!" Takami yells.

"Something is very wrong with it, look out" The frightened child bolts between the group, leading his pursuer in their direction. Before they could do anything, the Leomon grips his head, roaring out in pain; then his pupils disappear and he drops on the ground, foaming at the mouth. Ayame cautiously approaches him, but then he explodes into a burst of data, leaving no egg behind and shocking the entire group.

"Looks like that one couldn't handle it… Pity," says a deep voice from a tree. Up on a withered blranch was none other than Devimon, smiling maliciously.

"What did you do to him? Are you to blame for this whole thi-" Dalc starts yelling before Devimon practically teleports in front of him, grabbing him by the face and throwing him far back through several trees. "Your voice was irritating," Devimon says, flying back up to his tree.

"Dalc!" Suri yells, running along the mini-trench he dug up with his body. From behind, Devimon spreads his tattered wings as they glow with a dark aura. "Nightmare Wing!" Hundreds of tiny bats fly towards Suri while she is turned in a direction she couldn't see.

"Schwartz Strahl!" A black beam of energy shoots out from some trees to intercept Devimon's attack. Its origin was none other than Jinsa as Dobermon, eyes locking in on Devimon. "Aw I missed, those pesky bats got in the way of my shot…"

Devimon frowns, "You pests are popping out like termites!" Shortly following his insult was a barrage of diamond shards from Ayame, running interference for Dalc and Suri to recuperate.

"You seem pretty good at picking things off one by one, but let's see how well you do with four on one!" Alicia says as Hikari, Ayame, and Dalc emerge from their digivolutions as champions. Devimon's smirk completely disappears from his face as he flies up higher into the air.

"Let's see what you've got whelps! Shadow Claw!" He rips at the air toward Hikari, sending a shockwave of darkness towards her, but is intercepted by Dalc's Metal Burst.

In the smoke of the explosion, Ayame launches out her Foxtail Infernos, taking him off guard. "Nightmare Wing!" Instead of sending the bats _out_wards to a target, Devimon envelops himself in his attack, making a swirling wall of furry flying creatures to be destroyed instead.

Takami's eyes widen, 'That was… unexpected. Using an offensive move for defense is weird for some rouge digimon.' This time, Ayame and Hikari made a joint effort of attacking, launching both ice arrows and dancing fireballs. Being unable to counter fast enough, Devimon flies up higher out of their range, when in reality, flew right into their trap. Dalc maneuvered his way up above Devimon while using the twin attack as a diversion and fired off a Metal Burst, detonating it right before contact with Devimon's face.

"That'll teach you to throw my face into the ground!" Dalc roars in triumph, only to be shocked by his target perfectly fine inside a force field of some sort. "What the?" Dalc flies down to the rest of his allies to put some distance between the two parties while Suri squints up at Devimon.

"Don't tell me that's… a mod-card? Full-"

"Full Shield Barrier. You pick up fast for a human," a feminine yet sultry voice said from a shrouded path of the forest. From the path, dark purple eyes seem to pierce whatever they gaze at.

"Who or _what_ are you?" Rua yells at the mysterious figure.

"You need not know my identity, at least not yet. Now come, Devimon, you've had your recess and we have other things to tend to." Devimon flies down into the shaded path with a silent agreement and fades from view, along with whatever else was there. After their disappearance, the path lightened up quite a bit.

Looks like Falx has a new problem on their hands.

* * *

End of chapter 16!

A/N

CURSED CURSED SCHOOL DX I apologize to everyone for the extremely long delay in updates, but I was waiting for school to get settled in and give us our laptops (whoo btw). You may have noticed that the story was changed to M rated. This is for A) the language could be offensive to some people but more importantly, B) people like to read M things, not T things XD so there. And there will be fillers later, I swear =o Stay tuned for whatever chapter we're on!


	17. Rude Realization

Last time on _Ayame's Cronicles_, Falx had a brief encounter with two shady characters: a Devimon and a female companion. Being able to hold their own in a mysterious style of fighting. They escape and leave DATS slightly concerned about their presence in the digital world... Let's see what happens next, shall we?

* * *

Falx returns to base after a long termination that came in contact with Devimon in the forest. They explain their situation to the researchers when they return, but to no avail; no one could accurately explain why there was no digi-egg left behind, except Hikari…

"When you think about the essence of a digimon, it's supposed to be pure, which is why they turn into digi-eggs. The egg contains all of the contents that make up that digimon in something similar to a bunch of linking chains," Hikari starts, "and what I suspect is that Devimon somehow did something to that chain, probably removed a piece, which broke it and made the rest of the digimon corrupted. Then without the entire chain, the digimon couldn't form the egg again."

"But what was it? What is so important that it determines if a digimon resurrects itself as an egg?" a scientist asks.

Ayame taps her cheek with a claw, thinking and then says, "The Core, without The Core a digimon falls apart."

"What exactly is this 'Core' you speak of?" Izuru asks curiously.

"The Digital Core is what holds our worlds together, and everything from it is the Digital World. Whenever a digimon is made from enough data, part of The Core breaks off and holds all the data together. So basically, it gives that cluster of data a purpose, will, identity, personality, similar to what you humans refer to as a 'soul'." Eyes widen around the room around the room as Ayame continues, "If a Core is removed from a host digimon, the host will lose all personality, emotions, desires, and even memory, leaving only a husk behind with no purpose, most likely going berserk and attacking anything and everything. Quite a scary thought that something like that is even possible…"

All of a sudden, a blaring alarm with a red flashing klaxon interrupts their meeting before anyone could ask another question. Scientists rush to their monitors to figure out just what the heck is happening. Nearly instantaneous, large black windows open up on all the screens along with a familiar pair of piercing eyes.

"Greetings, DATS peons; this is a message to those younglings you have running around doing your little odd jobs." Ayame's and Jinsa's ears lower as they clench their teeth, recognizing the voice from earlier in the forest. "Normally I would say not to waste your or _my_ time by trying to thwart my various… experiments, but instead, I _welcome_ the challenge. I could use some entertainment." A glint of light reflects off the mysterious foes' pointed teeth revealed in her smile and then the windows turn to static, ending the transmission. Silence is running rampant in the room as several eyes shift to the unsettled group of Falx.

* * *

The next few days tick by slowly around camp; campers were either chatting, socializing or lounging around, no readings of suspicious activity from their world or the digital world, no trace of where the mysterious video came from, just… calm- unsettling calm like before a storm. Falx is currently in their cabin, getting a bit stir-crazy.

"I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!" Rua shouts, banging her head against her bunk, "Why send a threat if you don't do anything afterwards?"

"Calm down already," Suri says while playing with her hair and drawing in her sketch pad, "You're only upset because you haven't done anything outside in a while."

"That's a great idea!" Alacia says hopping up from the floor, "Let's go shopping, Takami! There's this new shop at the mall that I have been meaning to go into forever! They have all kinds of-"

"I don't wanna," Takami said with a slight eye twitch.

"Shoes, and cute tops, and pants, and jeans~" The list went on and on while her eyes widen and sparkle.

"I _really_ don't want to go shopping…" he says with a frown, but gets yanked by his wrist regardless. "H-Hey!"

"Cmon, let's go, before all the good stuff is picked up!"Alacia starts pulling him out the door against his will.

* * *

In mall after travelling, with digimon in digivices

Takami and Rua sulk around behind their female companions, grumbling while they hop from shop to shop, Alacia being much more energetic about window shopping than Suri, who just shuffles quickly from store to store, picking up various things that capture her eye. After about three hours (seven for the guys), they finally take a break at the outdoor food court. Takami sighs loudly then groans while sipping on his soda. "So… many… _**clothes**_…"

Suri and Alacia chat away while Rua fetches their order of food. On his way back, some little kid bumps roughly into him, spilling the food onto the ground and over the child. Rua first turns to yell at the kid, but strangely, it was like the kid didn't even notice their encounter. Rua frowns and goes to ask for a replacement order.

He arrives at Falx's table and gets barraged with a string of questions why it took him so long. "Some kid ran into me and knocked it all over himself, then walked off like nothing even happened!" He waves his arms while chomping down on a handful of fries.

"Little kids are weird, that's why I don't deal with them," Suri shrugs and sips from her soda. "Great, now I'm all out…" Her gaze shifts over to Takami.

Takami looks up and meets her gaze. "… I'm not getting up to refill your cup _again._ It's not even that far a walk for you!" Suri just adds a small smile and waits. "… Dammit! Fine!" She smiles in victory when he takes the cup. "Alacia, fill this up for her," Takami places the cup in front of Alacia (Delegating ftw!).

She gets up with no complaints and skips back over to the fast food counter and looks up at a cloud. 'Huh…?' A seemingly low flying cloud floats over the mall slowly, getting her attention and she decides to get Suri her soda, and then follows it. 'It's moving awfully fast with no wind around…'

The odd cloud stopped floating over a secluded area outside the mall. There, she spots a child who smells of fast food. "Hello? Little boy?" She goes over to him when the cloud suddenly starts to spiral, making a funnel from it down to the boy, kicking up a massive wind. Alacia squeaks as the surge of wind knocks her back. The funnel quickly grew bigger and bigger, until it stood much taller than the mall and at least 20 times wider than when it started. She looks up at the growing anomaly and shudders for some odd reason. The feeling was soon affirmed by a pair of large black-gold eyes. From the funnel, emerges a large metallic looking dinosaur that resembled a Tyrannosaurus, but with more markings and odd colors.

Alacia gasps as the Metal Tyrannomon roars loudly before stomping off to somewhere else around the mall, scattering the panicking people. Using her dimension-altering abilities of Helia, she jumps back over to where the rest of Falx was and gathers them outside to behold the new appearance. The Metal Tyrannomon starts to randomly stomp on empty cars or jamming its gigantic claws into a wall or ceiling of the mall.

Falx takes little time in calling out their digimon and turning them into champion forms and starts the assault on the metallic beast. Ayame thought that her Dragon Wheel would do some damage against it and lands a hit square in the torso, but only succeeds in pissing it off even more and gets a large claw to a wall. Jinsa starts aiming for its lower joints and tail, "This ought to knock you off balance, big guy!" Schwartz Strahl lands on its mark on the knees of Metal Tyrannomon, but doesn't even manage to leave a dent in it. Jinsa receives a similar response to Ayame, but this time with a tail. Hikari and Dalc hang out of its melee range and start firing of multiple long range attacks simultaneously, but only are deflected from its extremely tough hide.

"This clanker has some tough armor! I don't know how we- …What is that…?" Dalc says when Metal Tyrannomon turns in their direction and opens its large jaws with a light coming from its throat. "MOVE! NOW!" Dalc grabs Hikari with his tail and zips out of the way as Metal Tyrannomon's jaws closes to condense its shot and proclaims, "Giga Laser!" From its mouth, a large beam of fire launches in the general direction of where Dalc and Hikari formerly were, sweeps across the street (taking out a few cars with it) and a small portion of the mall, setting fire to everything.

Hurt but not broken, the champions of Falx try various combination attacks. Each one has about as much success as the previous ones: none

Takami frowns towards the mechanical monstrosity, 'This is going to get worse before it gets better…' He runs over to Ayame, shaking her slightly into consciousness again. "Ayame, you have to get up! If this goes on too long, too many things will get involved!" Ayame slowly gets up to her feet and shakes her head to clear it.

"I… don't know if I can. I mean this is an ultimate we're taking on right now, not a champion or something we can out-maneuver; just power versus power! It's taken everything we had and doesn't even seem fazed! Well, maybe angrier… but still, I don't know how we can exactly win this time…"

"Can't you digivolve to ultimate as well?"

"What gave you that idea I could do that?" Ayame tilts her head in confusion.

"Well, when the first couple generations of digi-destined seemed to conveniently digivolve in situations like this, so I thought it would work for us too…"

"Does it look like the power of 4kids is with us now?"

"What?" Takami blinks, "what's that?"

"Um… never mind… maybe we can contact headquarters for some back-up? Surely there's someone else who can do something!" Ayame grabs Takami by his shirt scruff and leaps out of the way of a falling wall.

"Who can we call? We're the top ones of the camp!" Suri explains while clinging to the back of Dalc for safety instead of being on the ground and using various defensive and snaring modify cards to at least slow down Metal Tyrannomon and shield their allies.

As if on cue, four jeeps with the DATS logo drive up to their location. Their apparel was quite different than expected; they still had the DATS logo on them but there was a form of an Aegis surrounding them including their heads with a full body suit. One of the more feminine shaped members leaps out of her jeep and starts yelling orders of surrounding the target. Troops jog in unison around Metal Tyrannomon, impaling it with oddly shaped spikes that did not seem to pierce its hide, but more like faze partially through it and leave only the blunt tips out, also partially paralyzing the metal digimon. More of the troops went around and made a circle around the confused menace and soon the female giving orders activated a switch which made a field of electricity. Metal Tyrannomon tried to move what it could against the field, but only received a violent shock.

"Target sustained, commence with Delta "I"!" She yells into a radio and then orders the troops to fall back. Metal Tyrannomon's binds grow smaller as it thrashes around. Suddenly, a large bolt of lightning strikes the metal target, enveloping it completely. The strike happens faster than anyone can comprehend and reveals the charred digimon, eyes dilated. Metal Tyrannomon's data explodes and is absorbed into the rods impaled into it from before, leaving only an unconscious child in its place.

The mysterious troops then start packing up their equipment while the lady approaches Falx. "Looks like you guys are lucky we showed up when we did," she says while sliding off her helmet, making them all gasp in surprise, "but I couldn't leave my best students to perish, now could I?" Izuru flashes them all a smile and tucks her helmet under her arm.

Rua looks baffled and tries to make sense of all this. "Ms. Izuru? Who are all these people in white? What was that thing just now?"

"To start off, the people in the suits are your fellow students of the camp in the new Aegis produced for mass use and distribution; they work quite effectively I might add. As for the bolt of energy you just saw was Delta I: Indignation- the protocol when a raging digimon needs to be terminated immediately for replacement somewhere else, our version of the cut-paste method. The rods we injected into it disrupt the digimon enough to launch the strike from base then absorb the data fragments meant to turn into an egg. We reconstruct the data back in the digital world as an egg. Now let's go, we all have some things to talk about…"

* * *

Ayame, back in her rookie form stares out the window absently while Izuru drives Falx back to camp. 'How come I couldn't digivolve…? It's just like when I turned into a champion sort of situation but-' she stops her thought when Takami gently puts his hand on her head, petting it gently. "What's that for?" She looks back at him, nuzzling into his touch a bit.

"You looked like you were thinking about something deep, so I thought I could make you relax a little by it," he says with a small smile. Ayame only sighs and smiles back, leaning onto his arm to get more comfy. "and I guessed that it was about earlier when we couldn't get you to digivolve earlier…"

Izuru looks back at them in her rear-view mirror and says, "Don't put yourself down so much; it may not be as simple for tamers these days to really synchronize with their partners for an Ultimate digivolution. You have to find something truly unique about what bond you share to unlock it."

Suri leans up a bit from her slouch, curious about the conversation. "So what exactly do we have to do to … "find" this factor? The foes are only going to get stronger and stronger from here."

Izuru takes a deep breath and sighs, "Personally, _**I**_ cannot tell you, but maybe a journey to the digital world may help, get back in touch with your roots of your relationship and see it in a new light, ya know?"

Rua looks over to Izuru from the front seat, "So what was yours, Ms. Izuru?"

"… I'll save that story for another day. We will do some fine tuning of your Aegis when you get back and treat your digimon. Then you can worry about going on your little trip." The rest of the car ride was silent and long, everyone contemplating the events of today and of what's to come. The digimon sit and stare absent-mindedly out of the window with the same thought buzzing in their heads: 'So it's back to my roots, eh…?'

* * *

End of chapter 17

A/N: Alright! Another chapter done- WHOO! Time to give these people some back stories! Read and review on the fan site too!

Jinsa: *grumbling*

Rua: What's your problem?

Jinsa: WE CANT DIGIVOLVE TO ULTIMATE WHEN WE NEED IT!

Suri: We don't honor the 4Kids god here.

Takami: Just who are they?

Rua: See the Anti-Christ.

Takami: Why does everyone keep saying that…


	18. Excursion To Zenko: Part 1

In the previous chapter of _Ayame's Chronicles,_ Falx pretty much got their asses handed to them by a single ultimate level digimon and realized how inferior they are to someone above their own level, no matter their number or card swiping. Izuru suggests they head to the digital world for the search of what their bonds really mean. Now let's head back to their cabin after they get back~ *pulls up a comfy chair, some fuzzy slippers, and a cup o' tea*

* * *

Takami is kneeling down in front of Ayame, who is sitting on his bed. He moves slowly and gently to make sure his job is done right.

"Ow! That hurt…" Ayame says with a yip and a jump, her tail quivering behind her.

"Well if you sit still, I could finish already and then you'll feel much better. And I'm almost done now," Takami says with a huff and puts his forehead to her knee, going back to his careful treatment to his sensitive partner. Ayame grits her teeth, trying to hold in anymore whimpers or groans, wishing he would be done already. "One last round and… DONE!" He throws his hands up in success and plops down on his butt.

Ayame sighs in relief and holds up her now treated leg, wrapped fully in linen to prevent swelling. "You liar, you said that wouldn't hurt too much!"

He smiles up at her, "Well it won't ever hurt NEARLY as much as the first time I treat you." (Innuendos ftw). Suri is busy holding Dalc down to dab his wounds with iodine and Rua helps Alacia pack up their supplies from patching up their digimon. "So anyone got any suggestions where we should go for our little enlightenment?" Jinsa asks.

"Maybe Helia has a section in that huge library of scrolls in town-" Hikari starts to suggest but is cut off by Alacia's scoff.

"What would a bunch of old pricks know about emotion and bonds? If there's no formula for it, it doesn't exist to them." She says and then quiets down, her grip tight on the first aid kit handle to the point of making spider cracks in the casing.

"Whoa… where'd that come from?" Rua looks over at her, shocked at her mini-rant.

"… Nothing, Anyway, Helia is out. Any other ideas of where to go?

Jinsa raises a paw into the air, "I remember running around with my pack when I was just a pup in the digital world. I considered going there for some help but the highest ranking guy was a Dobermon with a lot of battle scars; he was a strong leader who knew about teamwork and moving as a unit, but not so much about digivolving to ultimate… You got anything Dalc?"

"Well the land of Dorumon is almost completely inaccessible to anything that can't maintain high-altitude flight for hours on end. It's a huge floating island shrouded by clouds for camouflage, so it doesn't exactly have a set location. And besides, there really wasn't a 'chief' but more than just of Dorimon, Dorumon, and Dorugamon flapping around, going about their lives. But I _do_ remember playing with some of my friends around this shrine in the center of the island; our parents told us that the shrine held some kind of mystic power that keeps the island afloat and not drifting off into space. But for now, we really can't get there..." Dalc flexes his small wings, barely lifting his feet off the ground. "I can barely hold two people up in my champion form, and not for too long either. What about you, Ayame?" All of the digimon's attention shift over to Ayame, surprised from the sudden barrage of focus.

Her eyes drift up to the ceiling before she speaks, "Well… before going to the human's world, I lived in this village made specifically for Renamon kind. There were all stages, going from Viximon frolicking in the underbrush to Sakuyamon being sentinels around the edges of the forest. There was definitely an elder in the village that was very wise as well…" Ayame taps her chin, trying to recall any more details of her home. "I had a family there too; similar to how humans do in their world."

Hikari stares excitedly while listening to the description of a new land she's yet to visit. "Are there any landmarks that may stand out around it? I think I can get an approximate location if I just had a description of surrounding things; I spent **A LOT **of time studying maps in Helia." She giggles and taps her own head. "Photographic memory: information stays in like a steel trap."

Ayame's eyes drift back around, searching deep into her memory for any more details. "I remember there was a moist atmosphere, so we were either near or surrounded by a very large body of water… Altamir is something that sounded familiar whenever a group of Taomon left to make a new canal for the village's water supply. D…Does that help?"

Hikari nods, "Lake Altamir- located in the south-eastern quadrant of the Eastern continent. Coordinates are 882.593 from the last time we entered the digital world. Researchers are unable to obtain data on that lake in particular from the barrier around it, seemingly magical from observations." Everyone stares at the little bunny rattling on about everything around it.

Alacia sighs and shakes her head, "That's Hikari for you…"

All of Falx files out of the room, except for Ayame, who glances into her suitcase at the very few clothes she packed and stares like she ponders something. "I wonder if he'll remember…" and proceeds out with the others.

* * *

Falx is beamed into the digital world after using their new coordinates, landing near the edge of a grassy plain.

Suri squints while looking out at the massive lake, "Are you SURE this is a lake? It looks more like a sea! And I can't find the forest thing in the middle of the lake…"

Ayame looks around to take in all the scenery, from the flat fields that surround the lake to the crystal clear waters. "Of course you can't see it, it's Zenko Forest, only foxes can easily enter and leave. Now if I remember correctly…" She starts wandering around the edges of the lake, staring at the ground constantly while the rest follow behind her. She comes to a stop when realizing something different, "Here it is!"

"… What exactly is 'here'?" Takami asks while poking her back. "It doesn't look any different from the last mile we walked…"

"The entrance to the forest of course," Ayame smiles, then holds up her left arm (paw… thing… whatever…) and drags it a seemingly invisible surface. "Wisteria Claw!" She drags her glowing arm upward, somehow ripping a seam in the air, revealing an entirely different scenery behind it. Ayame wiggles through the opening and steps into the new land. "What are you all waiting on? You wanted to get to Zenko Forest right?"

The remainder of Falx look baffled when the rip happens and tentatively step in, then the tear seems to repair itself behind them, looking like many other trees around them. They find themselves in a large and verdant forest, full of various wildlife sounds and waterways running around banks. Ayame climbs up an unusually large tree and grabs a few leaves, bringing them down with her.

"How the crap did we get here all of a sudden?" Rua says while poking a tree, making sure that he wasn't hallucinating.

"We were around it the entire time; it just didn't look like it. Zenko Forest is surrounded by a large barrier; it primarily was used to just shield off invaders but many years ago, it was improved to reflect the lake that surrounded it, making the entire area seem massive. Pretty neat don't you think?" Ayame smiles, feeling a wave of nostalgia hit her as she takes in a deep breath, then hands each of the humans a leaf.

Suri stares and fidgets with her leaf, "What are these supposed to be used for? Do we eat them or something?"

Ayame giggles, "No! You'll just have to wait and see, but for now, I'll need your help with getting something." She starts to direct them through the forests, telling them to stand on various stumps or large lily pads with odd flowers near them. Ayame then signals Rua to blow on the leaf she gave him. Once he does, he hears a small chime coming from the direction of the flower, confusing him slightly; out of nowhere, a Boarmon comes charging down a path and rams hard into a tree, causing some sort of oddly colored apple to land in the water, where larger-than-usual Betamon start to feast on.

Next, Takami blows into his leaf, causing another Boarmon to charge into a tree, knocking down an even stranger fruit that looked similar to a peach, but blue. Ayame stands on a lily pad near him and hums happily into her leaf, signaling yet another Betamon to start swimming along the small stream running through the forest, pushing the blue-peach fruit with the fin on its head. Takami watches as it passes by the larger Betamon, still contently eating on their other fruit. "Is all of this really necessary?" Takami asks her, wondering why they were going through so much effort to move something.

"Yes, now go back to the entrance and wait with Rua." She says while instructing Hikari and Suri to blow on their leaves, making Betamon crash into a large boulder wedged between two mini-peninsulas from both sides, shattering it from their combined force. The Betamon with the fruit floats over to the new opening, dropping the fruit into a pool below it, then leaps down and continues swimming with it. Just what is Ayame trying to do?

* * *

Back at the entrance, Falx reformed and then watched as the Betamon with the fruit shows up and nudges it onto a lily pad, then swims away. Takami goes over and picks up the fruit, examining it. "All that effort for a piece of fruit?"

Ayame nods and then takes it in her paw-hands, "When it's around a Betamon in the vitamin enriched waters of the forest, the usually bitter taste is inverted to be incredibly sweet!"

Takami's eye twitches, "So… It's your snack?"

She shakes her head, "Not for me, no." Ayame starts walking up a large tree root, then over to another path. "But let's get going to my village." Falx follows her on her heels, not knowing what exactly to expect anymore.

* * *

The forest above them starts to dissipate in thickness to where sunlight could reach the ground quite easily once again, and the path became less grassy and more worn down, as if it has been walked over many times. Suri squinted to see beyond the sunlight to a small bush and points, "Wait, what is that?"

Ayame looks in the direction and smiles, then crouches down a bit and tilts her head, "Reila~" she says in a sing-song voice, "I can see you hiding over there Reila~" She giggles a bit as a pair of fox ears twitch from the bush. Following the ears, a pair of large green slitted eyes stares in the direction of Ayame, blinking a few times. "I brought you a present," Ayame splits the fruit in half, then into a quarter, and holds out a quarter piece to the mysterious creature being referred to as Reila. The eyes and ears disappear back into the bush, but pop out with a small girl skipping over to Ayame, wiggling a small fox tail proportional to her body behind her. She smiles eagerly and takes the fruit into her small hands, nibbling along it before pausing.

"Are these strange creatures your escort?" Reila asks in a high voice, looking up at all of them. Ayame nods in assurance, and then Reila finishes eating her piece of fruit. "Alright then!" Reila takes the half-fruit in her hands and dips her finger in, getting some of the nectar on it and hops up to Takami's chest while holding the fruit with her tail, herself onto his shirt with one hand and draws an odd symbol on his forehead. Takami is taken aback by it and looks up at what she's doodling on him, but can't quite tell; although he does smell the sweetness of the fruit's juice.

She repeats it for everyone in Falx, excluding Ayame and finally returns to the ground, eating the other quarter piece of fruit. "You all may pass into Zenko Village now," she says with a mouthful of fruit and then skips off to the direction of the village.

Jinsa licks his lips while trying to see his own forehead, "I'm not sure what this stuff is, but it smells awesome! And by the way, who was that? I thought this was a village of Renamon…"

Ayame stands up and turns to them, "Zenko Village is indeed a village full of Renamon, but it doesn't mean we all look the same; like a kitsune, we can change what we appear to be, like Reila. Reila is the gatekeeper of Zenko Village and marks visitors foreign to the forest with a fruit native to only our forest. She is actually a special Viximon who can sense intentions of visitors; if they have something bad they want to do to any of our residents, then she marks them with a fruit different from the one she likes. With that scent on them, our sentinels pick up on it the moment they enter the village and eliminate them. Luckily for you all, you passed the test of entrance and are marked as friendly, instead of neutral. Every so often, Reila switches her markers so if its ever imitated from earlier, it is a fraud and the target will be apprehended. Now let's go in; I want you to meet my mother~"

* * *

Ayame leads Falx through her home village, pointing out various shops she used to like along the way. They all to ke note of how all the residents were transformed into humans (minus the tail or tails coming out of their lower back) and acted just like anyone else, from merchants having casual conversation about events and making sales to their customers, to children frolicking around while either older siblings or parents kept watch of them and talked. When Falx passed by some of the lesser busy ones, some residents even greet them like they weren't outsiders!

* * *

Finally, they make it to the residential area of the village start to ascend a long staircase wrapped around an enormous tree that had been dug into to make "apartments". Ayame stops and peeks into her old home. "Mother, are you in here?" she chimes but gets no response. "Ah, well she'll show up eventually, let's wait inside." They all walk in behind Ayame and take note of how well her home was decorated. Jinsa sniffs at a few bundles of large leaves sewn together and then prods at it, figuring out they serve as cushions and proceeds to use one. Suri starts glancing about at all the artwork hanging on the walls on scrolls, smiling at the amount of detail that went into painting a victorious warrior or a maiden in a tranquil grove.

Takami wanders into the smaller rooms, assuming them to be bedrooms with Ayame in the room next to him. Jinsa's nose twitches and sits up. 'Something's com-!' He takes note of the blur of grey and black zooming into the room and toward Takami, knocking him down. Rua and Jinsa spring up to see what just flew in and find Takami grappling with an oddly colored Renamon.

"What are you doing here?" the Renamon snarls in a masculine voice. He bears his fangs while his inverted fur stands on end. Takami manages to throw him off balance enough to get a decent look at him and starts to wonder why the usually yellow fur was a smoky gray and the white tips of his coat were black. "I asked you a question, intruder!" He pounces toward Takami, not expecting him to retaliate (Oh how he will be proven wrong.)

Takami's answer was a silent one: a foot to the face to stop him in his tracks. "Give me your name and I'll give you mine. And what' the big idea of attacking _me_? (Yep, he's a scrapper-magnet)" The Renamon only growls at his insolence and lashes out at him with his claws over and over again, only to be dodged or evaded. Ayame turns her head, coming back from her little trip down memory lane and goes over to see what all the noise is about.

She sighs when seeing the darker-colored Renamon fighting and clenches her fist, then knocks him off balance by a whack to the back of the head. "I told you at least a thousand times already about fighting every last guy around me, Yuan!"

The fox know known as Yuan clenches where she hit and turns his attention in her direction, "Ow! Whatcha do that for? These humans have gotten so far into our village –our home!- and no one has done anything!"

"Maybe because they're **ALLOWED**." Ayame whacks him in the head again. "I'm not some little cub who needs her brother protecting her from everything!"

Takami stares, dumbfounded, while watching the two siblings bicker while his brain caught up. "_He_ is your brother?"

Yuan turns back to Takami, "Yes, I am! Now who are _**you**_?"

"I'm Takami, her partner!" He barks back, making Yuan's eye twitch from his response.

"You humans are sick! How dare you claim my sister like that; she's so young!"

Takami looks puzzled as he deciphers the response and places where the shock came from, and blushes once it clicks. "N-not like that, ya perv! She's my partner digimon!"

Yuan almost felt like sighing in relief, but instead he just stands up again, his face warping to look like pure scorn. "Then I truly feel sorry for her…" He then turns away and walks calmly out of the apartment, then leaps away into the village. 'Digimon involved with humans never end up well…'

Dalc watches as his dark fur disappears into the distance, "What's his problem?"

Ayame sighs, "Don't get him wrong, he's a nice guy on the inside. He just has a hard time showing it."

Alacia nods, "Despite his … display, he really does care about his little sister. Just like any older brother would…" Her voice trails off as her gaze looks out the window.

"I've been meaning to ask about that," Suri speaks up. "How can digimon be related? Digimon don't reproduce (outside of of course) and are resurrected when they're defeated. Plus, you don't even look similar to each other."

"In our and a lot of other villages, there is a nursery where eggs of fallen digimon around the world re-spawn. And although digimon don't reproduce (according to 4kids), we can still fall in love," Ayame says with a blush before continuing, "and when single foxes or couples decide they want to expand their family, they go down to that nursery and adopt a Viximon running around there to take care of. There's always a family ready for another member so no one is left out. Yuan and I were adopted exactly two years apart on the same day, so that's our version of being twins~"

"Well at least we didn't get serious when scrapping…" Takami says while dusting himself. Ayame giggles a bit and uses her tail to help dust his back off until her vision is cut off by something fluffy. A smile spreads along her face as she caresses the fluffy object. "Hello to you too~"

A figure emerges from the shadows of Ayame's old bedroom, revealing the owner of a tail to be a woman. The tail snaking out the back of her tunic was a fiery orange-red, matching the woman's hair that reached down to her waist. She was around 5 foot 8 and had very fair skin, along with a well-endowed figure, causing her tunic and knee-length pants to cling to her perfectly. She looks up at Takami briefly with a smile that could make any male's knees buckle under him. The woman embraces Ayame into a hug from behind. "Greetings… my lovely daughter," She chimes while rubbing her chin into Ayame's head.

* * *

End of chapter 18!

A/N: Man I really need to update more '

But thankfully, I've got the plot drawn out for many chapters to come ^^ Expect to see many chapters under your tree or even sooner~

Yuan: *glaring at Takami*

Takami: *glaring back at Yuan*

Suri: *staring at pictures on wall*

Dalc, Jinsa, Rua: *looking at Ayame's mother*

Ayame: … Who knew home would make everyone this talkative… ~'


	19. Excursion To Zenko: Part 2

Last time in _Ayame's Cronicles_, Falx was confused as to how they couldn't become Ultimates (Mostly cause 4-Kids ain't here) and ventured into Ayame's home village for consolation by the village elder, but ran into some of her old family. Now let's all sit back and watch what happens with the foxy lady known as her mother (Sheaow! She's one foxy lady! (_No pun intended_)

* * *

As it turns out, Ayame's mother Tsubanai, or Nai for short was out at the town's market and saw them pass by but casually started to follow them around to see where they would end up at. "I've missed my lovely little Prelissa ever since it was her time to go to earth… Sadly some digimon can't stay with their families forever, but it is nice to see her once again!~" Nai said while nuzzling the younger vixen in her arms.

Takami couldn't help but smirk a little at her blush growing under her fur, "Prelissa? You said your name was Viximon when we met!"

Ayame sighs, "Prelissa is what my mother called me when I was here… but since I was sent to the human world, I might as well get a fresh start. Plus… it was kinda embarrassing…" Her blush deepens as her mother repeats her name over and over again while giggling.

"Is that so? Then what are you called now?" Nai's tail flicks behind her in curiosity.

"I asked her if she liked the name Ayame, and she did, so that's what she goes by," Takami says with a slight smile.

Nai's expression suddenly shifts from carefree and happy to serious as she steps away from Ayame toward Takami, slowly circling him and observing him from head to toe. "And just who might you be?" she stops in front of him, leaning forward slightly to be at eye level, her piecing emerald-slit eyes staring into his.

A wave of uncomfortableness ran through Takami from her being so close, unsure of where he should look when talking to her. In her face in general? The wall behind her? Eye to eye? "I'm Takami… and Ayame is my partner digimon. AND NOT IN THE BAD WAY! I-I wanna make that perfectly clear!" He shoots out quickly, although speaking faster than he usually does.

Nai stares at him for a few more seconds before standing back up straight. "I see…" Suddenly, she smiles widely and pulls him into a tight death-hug to her ample chest. "Anyone able to make my daughter happy is welcome to our home!"

Takami is taken back from the sudden suffocation, flailing his arms around for an escape while Rua smirks. "Should he really be squirming like that?" Suri can't help but giggle at his reaction as well. "I'm sure she won't kill him… Maybe~"

Nai holds onto him firmly and turns slightly towards Ayame, giving her a wink along with a 'You picked a good one!' mouth gesture, making her blush even more. "But that's enough formalities," Nai finally releases Takami from her grip so he can pant and blush freely, "Now why have you returned to Zenko Pre- Ayame? It's not exactly easy getting here, so I doubt it's strictly for a visit."

Ayame nods, "In a recent encounter in the human's world, there was an ultimate level digimon, and he wasn't fazed by our champion level attacks. We would go up to ultimate level, but we aren't exactly sure how… You were one of the wisest people I could think of who could think of anything of how we could."

Nai taps her chin, casually strolling around their group. "Perhaps you should visit your gr-… Grand Elder. He is the oldest living Sakuyamon we know of. If anything, he can figure it out!" She smiles and starts moving out of her wooden home and scampers off into the village, leading Falx the Grand Elder. Ayame couldn't help but fidget uncomfortably at the thought bugging her in the back of her head, trailing further and further behind the rest of her group, fiddling with Takami's digivice's storage system.

* * *

Nai leads Falx to a large shrine, stopping at the two large doors. Falx stares at them, confused as to why there was no way to open them from the outside, but were shocked when they opened on their own. They all proceed inside, but Takami hangs towards the back and notices Ayame wasn't behind him. 'Where did she go?'

His attention was soon brought to the candles that lit up as they walked down a long pathway to a shrine and notice that the shrine was more like a large granite chair with a lot of engravings around it. Suri looks around the candle-lit room, "Where's the elder…?"

"That's Grand Elder to you younglings," A deep voice said from out of the darkness, startling everyone but Nai. All of a sudden, small streams of light spiral together from the ceiling and focus on the center of the large chair. The light builds up into a small ball before shining brightly for a brief moment, then reveals a silver-tinted Sakuyamon lounging on the chair, its staff suspended above its head from its own power. "Now, what has brought you to the shrine of the Grand Elder, Zemerick? " The voice was clearly male and had a commanding but calm tone to it.

Rua steps forward slightly, "We came here to seek answers for a problem we had with our digimon. You see-" He stops speaking when Zemerick's eyes glance around from his fox mask onto him, then onto the rest of the group.

"But why me? Coming all the way through Zenko Forest just for hope of an answer? How could you have even gotten here without an escort?" Zemerick asks them, slightly intrigued at the assortment of creatures in front of his shrine.

"I brought them here, Grand Elder." Ayame says from behind, near the entrance, but was a bit different. She was in fact wearing the first outfit of clothes that Takami ever bought her so long ago, sporting her black _Foxy_ shirt, and her jeans. Ayame takes slow, but long strides toward the shrine, stopping next to Takami. "It was my idea to bring them here, and I knew they would do no harm."

Zemerick sits up in his chair a little straighter, looking at Ayame with surprise. "I remember you, young one! You were the latest of our kind to venture out into the human world! What is with your… odd attire?" He cocks his head to the side, wondering why she was wearing an outfit to look similar to a human.

"It's my outfit that my human partner, Takami, gave me. It was a present to show how I was different from a typical Renamon."She puts her hand-paw on Takami's shoulder reassuringly, sensing his tension. "He has also given me the name of Ayame, for my new life with humans."

Zemerick processes her boldness of approaching him in such a way. "… I see. Quite an… interesting way of going about on uniqueness." He relaxes back into his seat. "So what is this problem I hear you all have?"

Ayame nods quickly and her tail flicks behind her. "We were seeking answers to unlocking digivolution that further exceeds a Champion level. It started when we were faced with an Ultimate level in the human's world and couldn't suppress it with our attacks and couldn't digivolve when the time came."

Zemerick actually smiles at her request, "Come closer, and bring your human friend with you," he says with a 'come hither' finger gesture. Takami and Ayame both stand at the base of his shrine, staring up at him for further instruction. "I must first see how a tamer and digimon have come together before dealing with their desire for further evolution."

Ayame goes on about how she was materialized in Takami's school grove a long while ago and how their meetings went along, then about the fire she was rescued from, and finally about their first battle with an enemy digimon. After their brief recap (of the first 5 or so chapters), Zemerick chuckles and pats Takami lightly on the head, "You're a brave young human, aren't you? You made your bonds with your digimon through a split decision and were headstrong about it; qualities of a future leader. I can expect a few interesting things from you~ Now hold up your hand." Takami smiles at the praise and holds up his right hand. Zemerick waves his larger hands over Takami's, sending a strange light to focus on the back of his hand that comes together to form a small diamond shaped blue crystal with a gold trim. It didn't seem to hurt at the touch, it just felt… new.

"This," he taps the crystal lightly, "is an Aura Inhibitor. Your previous digisoul was strong- ecstatic even!- but you had nowhere to focus all of it, but this crystal can serve as a catalyst to manipulate it into a condensed form, allowing you to unlock Ultimate digivolution." He pets Ayame's and Takami's heads lightly before turning to the rest of Falx. "Now for the boy and the dog…"

Rua and Jinsa step forward after Takami and Ayame move out of the way and Zemerick touches their foreheads, watching their memories as if it were a film.

* * *

++++++++Flashback++++++++

Rua thinks back to meeting Jinsa while fleeing from a large gang of people, and then hid in an old building that was marked for demolition

Rua is jogging quickly down the street on an unusually warm winter day, a group of people pursuing behind him.

"You'll pay for what you did to my car you little runt!" one of the people in the group yell out while shaking their fist angrily.

"I swear it wasn't my fault! Maybe you should park your car away from windows. That way, it won't end up under my feet while being chased!" Rua calls back at them before turning into a narrow alleyway. The peeved off crowd had no choice but to go in by twos but Rua was nowhere to be seen.

"Where the hell'd he go? I swore he came down this way!" One of the angry guys yells while they run down the alleyway to another street. Rua smirks from his clever hiding spot that was a knocked out window of an old building. He was all too well acquainted with using his surroundings to escape from people, mobs not uncommon to him. After he was sure they weren't going to turn around, he began to wander around in the dingy building, it being somewhat less dirty than the usual abandoned building, but he didn't really notice. He finds some stairs and marches up them to a higher window, having a good view of the city and even his house and school from there!

"This place has a kick-ass view of everything!" Rua says to himself before stroking his chin, considering about how this place would look with a new coat of paint or at least less dust and debris around on the floor. He then descends the stairs for home, not even noticing the pair of deep purple eyes watching him with a smirk ever since he walked in from a corner.

* * *

Rua continued to come back to the old building, with either a broom for cleaning the place up, or slightly used furniture people threw out (people were so wasteful). He was even able to find an old refrigerator that had a bad filter and was able to replace it to workable conditions. All those days of working in a hardware/repair shop finally came in handy! After around two weeks of work on his home away from home, it was done. He then packed up his bag of tools and then left for home, making sure not to be detained from school tomorrow.

* * *

Rua walks back up the stairs of his new hideout and almost immediately feels something is off. He sets his bag down near a wall and walks over to the refurbished couch. Prodding at it carefully, he feels that a part of the couch was warm and had a few hairs that weren't there before. "Maybe I'm just imagining things…" He then goes over to his fridge to get a soda and a snack to relax. Near it, there were a few cans with what looked like puncture wounds on two sides of them, drained of its contents and an empty sandwich wrapping, torn of course.

At this point, Rua is wondering just what the hell went through here! His thoughts were soon suppressed by a low growling from behind him. When he turns, he sees an odd labrador-ish dog glaring at him from the only entrance and exit to the room. Looking closer, he noticed the dog had a fur color that looked close to what he found on the couch. He gathers his nerves and takes a slight breath, "… Are you the one who went ripping through my place?"

The dog stops growling and looks at him for a moment, then an odd look came on its face, as if it were smiling. The next thing it did shocks Rua: it started laughing. The purple and beige dog was actually laughing at him! "_**YOUR**_ place? This has been my home for weeks, you silly human! Although after you came in here to hide many days ago, you renovated my home without my asking and even brought me supplication, which is why you're not lying down in a pool of your own lacerated flesh and blood. If you swear allegiance to me I just ma-"

"HOLY SHIT A TALKING DOG!" Rua interrupts him while pointing at the dog, surprising it. "DOGS DON'T TALK!"

"That's because** I'M NOT A DAMN DOG, YOU IDIOT**!" the dog barks back at him, not appreciating being interrupted.

"Sure do look like a dog, and a fluffy one too." Rua makes his way over to the dog; standing in front of it and making it go into a defensive stance.

"I'm not a dog, dammit! I'm a-"

"Want a biscuit boy? You want a biscuit?" Rua smiles while scratching behind one of the dog-like creature's ears.

The creature's back leg gives a slight twitch of enjoyment. "That sounds kinda ni- **DON'T PATRONIZE ME!**" It hops back out of Rua's reach, shaking its head of any thought of being scratched or petted. "You should be running away from me! You should be cowering in fear! Do you not know what I am? I-"

Rua finishes sentence for him, "am glad that I showed up so you wouldn't feel so alone in this huge building." The creature's eyes widen, surprised but then changes it to disagreement. "You don't fool me. You react so virulently to make yourself seem tough, impenetrable while inside you were quite sad and were longing for something to keep you company. I would know; I am the master of facades. Now do you _really_ want me to leave or do you want me to stick around and chat for a while?" The dog grew quiet… and then walks past Rua to hop onto the couch, walking in a little circle to get comfy before settling down.

"My name is Faolan, in what you humans call Irish, meaning 'little wolf'" He says calmly while looking at Rua, "I am a Labramon, and in my pack I was one of the weakest ones, hence my name. The reason I was so weak because I was always outdone: last one to get to a hunt, can't finish off a bird before it flies away, getting separated the most. I was tired of it all… Then one day, I was trailing along behind the pack, as usual, and then a portal opened up. I just knew if I had a chance to do something, I'd be better than the rest of them, even better than the pack leader himself. Then I wound up here in the human world and took refuge in the nearest building, planning on how to prove myself."

Rua slumps down next to Faolan, thinking for a minute "Jin Sabala". Faolan tilts his head to the side and Rua repeats himself, "Jin Sabala. It means benevolent and powerful. It fits you more. I sure wasn't seeing a 'little wolf' when I heard growling from behind me," He smiles and takes out his thin black glasses and puts them on before continuing, "You remind me a lot of myself and one of my friends… We know we can achieve if we had a chance, so we all wait on a break. But in the meantime, we shield ourselves to make our weak spots less visible."

Faolan nods and considers something. "Jin Sabala is a bit of a mouthful… Maybe combine em… Jinsa." He barks in approval of his new name. "That's what they'll know me as: a benevolent and powerful leader!"

Rua smiles at it, "Sounds nice and-" He pauses before turning around to a window, looking down. Jinsa joins him and they see men with yellow hats putting yellow tape around the building.

"What are they doing down here… um, what's your name?" Jinsa looks at Rua, disturbed at the men downstairs.

"My name is Rua, Rua Fuisen, and those guys down there are setting up what looks like… A demolition zone! Look, you can't stay here! They're taking this building down!"

Jinsa growls, "Then I'll fight em off!"

Rua shakes his head, "There's a better option: find somewhere new to stay. There are places MUCH better than this cold building anyways!"

Jinsa growls quietly and then looks down at the couch, quickly considering his few options. "Like where?"

Rua smiles and holds out his hand. "My home."

* * *

Rua and Jinsa escape from the building before it was boarded it up and continue onto Rua's house and play off Jinsa being an odd dog he found on the street and followed him home. His parents thought it was an odd color for a dog but shrugged it off as okay. The following day, Jinsa brings Rua an odd device in his mouth, saying it showed up overnight.

* * *

++++ Back to the present ++++

Zemerick takes his hand off Rua's head, finishing the sequence of events. He chuckles at the odd way they met and then looks Rua in the eye, speaking sternly. "Why do you fight with your partner?"

Rua swallows before speaking, "We fight so we don't have to hide. With Jinsa, it's like seeing my aspirations to become stronger in a physical form. He is the embodiment of our desire to become stronger, so we may finally be who we choose to be instead of being something out of self-preservation."

Zemerick strokes his chin before leaning forward, waving his hand over Rua's, giving him an Aura Inhibitor that matched his burning Digisoul. "I know that you shall use this wisely. And now for the girl and the little draco next to her."

Suri and Dalc slowly walk up to Zemerick while Rua and Jinsa join Takami and Ayame waiting. What lies in the path of the female members of Falx? Find out in the next chapter!

End of chapter … whichever this one is!

Me: Oh yeah. Eat it 4kids. There's method behind the madness.

Rua: Who knew I could sound almost as cool as the main character o-o

Ayame: You wish you were as popular as me *waves to the crowd of fans*

Jinsa: I don't think they meant you…

Ayame: But… My name's in the title! If not me, then who? D: *whimper*

Me: SILENCE! READ AND REVIEW!


	20. Excursion To Zenko: Part 3

Last time in _Ayame's Chronicles (_Thanks to Suri's Grammar-Nazism, I added the 'h') Takami and Rua received their Aura Inhibitors from Zemerick, the Grand Elder Sakuyamon of Zenko Forest. Now it's time for Suri's and Alicia's turn!

* * *

Suri inches closer to the Elder Sakuyamon, feeling a bit wary of her memories being viewed but nonetheless had a hand placed on her head like the other two.

++++++ Flashback ++++++

Suri steps off the charter bus of her private school her parents insisted on sending her to, readjusting her satchel around her shoulder to make it more comfortable. While her teacher explains what the class was supposed to do in downtown Tokyo during that field trip, she was humming to herself and looking around for something interesting. Before she knew it, the other students had dispersed into groups and spread out amongst the thick crowd. The teacher taps her on the shoulder to catch her attention, "You didn't catch a word of that, did you?" Her teacher laughs a bit, knowing her mind wanders from time to time.

Suri replies with a quick, "Nope, not a word~" and then waits for him to repeat. "Your assignment is to travel within five blocks of this bus and find something natural, and then catalog it. It can be as a report, notes scribbled on a sheet of paper, orally or your favorite: drawn." He pauses as he sees her eyes light up from the opportunity of getting to draw for a grade. "Now come with me, I have a place that might inspire you."

They both walk down one block to a large building that seems to tower over all the others and enter it. The building with a few elevators running up and down turns out to have large viewing decks for the city (sound familiar all people from or went to New York?) Suri gets off on a floor about 68 stories from the ground and bravely goes out on to the deck overlooking the city. Everyone except her stayed inside because they weren't comfortable with dizzying heights and a transparent floor. The wind was a bit stronger up here and made her skirt flow uncomfortably, even though she wore shorts under it. 'Dang it mom, You just _had_ to make me wear the freakin' skirt _**TODAY**_ just _had_ to wear the freakin' skirt _TODAY_.' She plops down on a chair and notices something purple on the scaffold just below her. She bends down to realize it sorta looks like a purple football with a tail. It was stuck on a window washing platform.

"How the hell'd ya get down there?" She asks what she thinks is an inanimate object. Shockingly, it moves and turns to look up at her with deep amber eyes. From there she could see it also had a mouth, and even legs and ears!

"I-I was trying to see a bit more of the city from an angle, but there wasn't floor where I stepped… I've been stuck here for about two days now…" It replies sheepishly, hoping the new person could help it out of its small cage. "I also kinda don't like hei-"

"Okies~" She replies while cutting him off, unhooking her satchel strap from the bag itself, then lowing one end down to the scaffold. "Can you bite onto that and hold on?"

The creature replies with a leap followed by a chomp onto one end of the strap, its tail wagging back and forth eagerly from being rescued. Suri slowly and smoothly pulls it up so it won't lose its grip and fall. When the creature reaches the deck again, it rushes up to her and nuzzles her leg in appreciation.

"THANK YOU SO MUCH!" It says at first, but then steps back, looking sheepish again. "By the way, my name is Dorimon, what's yours?"

Suri pokes at Dorimon's tail and body, "You're fuzzy~"

Dorimon blinks in confusion and twitches its tail when her finger touches it, "Thank… you…?"

"I'm Suri," she finally says before thinking. "… Can I draw you?"

Dorimon does his version of a shrug. "Sure why not? By the way, what's drawing?"

Suri laughs a bit and takes out her sketch pad and a set of pencils. "Just sit in a natural pose and I'll show ya in about 30 or so minutes."

Dorimon sits down on its hind legs and tail curled around to the front, curious as to what her frantic strokes on the notebook were causing. After her … (Whatever it is Suri does when she draws stuff, iunno, go ask her) sketching session, she turns the pad around to show Dorimon a picture of itself, and all of the city behind it with surprisingly vivid detail due to the lack of color, but lots of shading. Wagging its tail excitedly, Dorimon stands up again. "That's amazing! How'd you do that so fast?"

"It's only a drawing…" Suri says while smiling a little before her stomach growls. Usually she doesn't get very hungry when she isn't at home, but today was different since she didn't have breakfast. "I'm hungreh… Wanna go get something to eat?"

Dorimon jumps up and down, says "Starving!" then hops in her satchel to hide in. Suri struggles a bit, since her frame isn't what you'd call strong. Toting Dorimon back to the lobby inside, she meets up with her teacher again and he sighs in relief. "There you are! I was wondering which deck you got off on… Did you find anything to draw?"

Suri nods, says "Now I'm gonna wander around to try and find something to eat," then goes to step in an empty elevator with her teacher.

"Mind if I take a peek at what you drew?" her teacher asks while pointing to her bag, where she hands him her sketchpad and flips to the page of her recent portrait. He stares at the picture for a second, turning it from side to side as if it were some sort of complicated code. "… What is this exactly?"

Suri shrugs, unsure of whatever the creature was. "He called himself Dorimon, so I guess that's what he is."

His eyes widen for a moment then hands her notebook back, "Is that why your bag is bulging and wiggling so much?"

"He's hungry like me!" She simply smiles, not thinking of it as a big deal.

"Well let's see if we can satisfy your hunger with a tender on the ground level. All these dizzying heights are making me light-headed…"

* * *

On the ground, Mr. Xin and Suri scour the streets for a decent place to eat. Suri uses her innate ability for locating any and all sweets within a mile radius to find a secluded ice cream parlor, where she buys herself as much maple sugar ice cream as she can cram into one cup, occasionally sharing with Dorimon. Mr. Xin shakes his head and laughs from their happy moods, but cannot help but glance out the window every so often.

"Do you see something out there?" Suri asks him with her spoon still lodged between her teeth.

"…No nothing," he says while shaking his head and sliding his hands into his pockets and waiting on Suri to leave. Once she joins him, they somehow lose their way and end up running around in a maze of alleys. "CURSE THIS CRAMPED COLONIZATION OF A TOWN!" Mr. Xin yells, grabbing Suri's attention from a daydream.

"So now what?" She looks up at him, clueless as to what they should try next while Dorimon wriggles around restlessly inside her bag.

A mysterious gruff voice answers them from around a corner, "Maybe you should drop everything of value and scram." From the corner, a teenager with a black vest covered in dangling chains and a pair of shades on walks in front of them and spits out a toothpick. "If ya know what's good for ya."

Soon, more guys of similar attire walk out, along with a few Goburimon also wearing shades to fit in with the crowd. Suri moves closer to her teacher, clenching his wrist through his blazer. Dorimon growls from her bag while peering out at the pseudo-mob. Mr. Xin sighs and shifts his glasses on his face. "You boys should be in school right now! Haven't your parents taught you any better?"

The assumed leader laughs haughtily, "Who needs school when ya learn from da streets? Now pops, why don't you leave yer stuff and the girl, and we might not have to rough ya up … too much." The group behind him laughs and moves in closer. Xin sighs and looks down, "You hooligans could use a lesson or two in discipline, and even though we're on a field trip, I'll be happy to oblige you~" a few of the thugs frown and move even closer when he pulls out a device foreign to Suri's knowledge. (Oh yeah… _THAT_)

"Ryudamon, realize!" the bright orange and purple-striped device emits a bright light in front of Xin, revealing a large lizard-like creature with its arms and back plated in armor. The creature looks around at the startled gang then back up to Xin. "Been a while since you got in a situation like this… Getting less reckless Lieu?" Ryudamon chuckles while looking up at his grown up partner Lieu Xin.

The older man laughs a bit as well, "You could say that. But that's beside the point, Ryudamon wrap this up quick. We have a bus to catch!" Lieu's hand starts glowing in what looked like a spiraling flame of orange and purple from his hand and raises it above his head while it spreads over the rest of his body, while Suri, Dorimon and the rest of the surrounding thugs watch in shock. "Digi-soul, _**Full Charge!**_" He brings his hand down onto the device, causing a large bolt of light to hit Ryudamon and envelop it.

Within the sphere of light, Ryudamon goes through a major transformation, shedding any armor on his body while it elongates the top of its body taking on a blacker hue of scaling while his underside takes a scarlet red coloring and his facial features shifted from what was a lizard to more of a dragon. Finally, he emerges from his cloak of light as … "Hisyarumon!" He roars out while circling above them, tightly clutching two orbs within his claws.

Hisyarumon coils himself around Suri, Dorimon and his partner, tucking his head down to his tail. "You humans have seen too much for you to comprehend. Some are just not destined to meet digimon but that's what I'm here for~" he says as he circles around the small group, his outer scales growing brighter. "Mugen Hoiru!" The glowing scales start firing off beams of energy to everyone not on the inside of his belly scales, blasting the digimon hard enough to turn them to digi-eggs and erasing the human's memory involving digimon. Afterwards, he grabs Suri and Lieu with his tails, tossing them onto his back, laying low above the buildings to look like some form of advertisement.

Suri sits quietly on the undulating dragon while Lieu glances back at her. "You okay back there Suri? No barrage of questions about a random lizard turning into a dragon?"

Suri looks up and shakes her head, shuffling around inside her bag for something, Dorimon sitting next to her for the ride. "Nope, anyone else know about this… whatever it is?"

He laughs a bit, "Only a few, and his name is Hisyarumon, a Digimon. It's kinda important to keep his identity a secret since not that many people are meant to have relationships with digimon."

"Oh really? How can you tell?"

"Simple, they have one of these." He holds up his orange and purple digivice for her to see.

"Ohhhh… Mind teaching me how to use it then…?"

"Why would you need to know…?" He blinks in confusion.

"Cause I found this thingy in my bag soon after we took off~" She waves her hand around clasping her own purple digivice, astonishing Lieu.

"… Maybe after school next week, I need a serious nap to sleep off this coincidence. It's like someone planned it this way… (ORLY :O) _**BUT**_ only if you're able to pull up your grades a bit, around to a C. I know you know what you're doing, you just are lazy and need some incentive."

Suri whines as the wind blows her hair in her face, "But I suuuuuuuuuuucccckkkkkk at math…"

"For every lesson you get done right, I'll let you into the teacher's lounge for coffee in the afternoon when you usually crash." Suri perks up.

* * *

3 weeks later

Dorimon digivolves into Dorumon after naturally spending time with Suri (It's an age thing) and peeks down from the stairs of Suri's room to listen in on the conversation between Suri and her mother. From what he could hear, her mother was squealing with joy at Suri's report card, specifically at a certain class that she always struggled in. Suri comes back upstairs holding an entire pie tin of apple pie and a bowl of maple sugar ice cream. Dorumon backs up from the door and sniffs the air as she totes in with the sweets. " I told you that you could pass the mid-term! Now pay up with that pie!"

"Nyuh, its mine~" Suri chirps while holding it out of his reach, but not far enough for his tail. He tips the tin enough to cut a slice and eats it quickly, laughing that he got some, only to have Suri's hand put on his head. It wasn't a hard hit or anything, more of a patting-pet sort of gesture, which he enjoyed. "I'ma let that one slide. You're the reason I had to try so much in the first place. And I think I'll call you Dalc."

He looks up, "Why's that?"

"It's cool soundin~" (facepalm moment).

+++++End of Flashback+++++

Zemerick chuckles at her whimsical beginning with Dalc and takes his hand off Suri's head, where she then shakes her head to fix her hair. "That was interesting. Now tell me: Why do you fight alongside your partner?"

Suri shrugs and thinks for a bit, "Maybe because with him around, I have something to strive for. I dunno… Its like with him around me, I feel compelled to try more than I ever would. I draw better, I talk better, I'm even better at school! He's not just my partner; he's my inspiration for giving effort in stuff I do." She looks up hesitantly at the old Sakuyamon, wondering if her reason was as convincing as Takami's or Rua's. Her disbeliefs are dissipated when her hand is taken and a purple Aura Inhibitor rests in her hand.

She shuffles over to Takami and Rua while Alacia goes up for her turn. Who knows what lies in the memories of the fourth member of Falx?

* * *

End of chapter 20

Notice to the public: Hiya, I'm Takumi7. I'm Takami's friend and new editor. Suri still edits too. Two things I would like to clear up. MY NAME DOES NOT COME FROM THIS FANFICTION! No changes in plot or character design are my fault. Writing style and grammar however…. That is all

A/N: Yeah, he lit my paper up at the beginning. Then the rest was nearly empty o-o. And yeah, that's right. You wait. Wait until I am struck by more inspiration :D You can thank the IRL Suri for her… mannerisms (W00t for her!).

Suri: … ALULULULULULU~!

Dalc: What was that for? O-o

Suri: I didn't have a chance to say it all day D:

Takami: … *messes up her hair before running off*

Suri: IMMA SMACK YOU ! *chases*

_**Now read and review. Alacia's character development depends on it!**_


	21. Detour to Amestria

Last time on** _AYAME'S CHRONICLES _**Ayame and Co. transverse through the mysterious Zenko forest to the village of Ayame's origin, seeking guidance on their unsuccessful digivolutions. Their memories reveal a bit of what they can surpass to become the ultimate partner (harhar made a pun). NAO I BID THEE TO READ.

* * *

Alacia steps forward to the Sakuyamon waiting on his ornate throne. Hikari shuffles along by Alacia's side, unsure of why she had to come along, but went regardless. Zemerick looks at her from head to toe, stroking his chin in a curious manner. "There's something about you, girl, something…something different from the others. Where are you from?"

Alacia eeps a bit, then gulps, "He-Helia…"

Zemerick nods in affirmation and ah's, "Quite the place, Helia. Interesting bunch of people. But no getting sidetracked, come closer." Alacia leans forward so his gloved hand can brush her soft chestnut hair out of the way to touch her forehead, peering into the final member of Falx's past.

* * *

++++ Flashback ++++

A much younger Alacia, around the age of 10 or so, is scurrying through a large hall with shiny reflective tiles on the floor, marble walls covered in paintings, tapestry and large windows and even the occasional chandelier decorating the hall. Knowing the Sun Palace better than most people (even the architects who built it); she continues running as fast as her little legs could carry her without tripping on her orange-yellow dress' frilled edges. She slows for a bit to quiet her huffing to listen to another hallway that connected to her current one and heard faint voices growing in volume. Getting tired and panicked, Alacia ducks into a nearby room to hide while she rests.

She glances around the slightly cleaned room for a possible spot to hide. _'Where to hide… where to hide…!'_ She runs over to the king sized canopy bed to hide under, but forgot all of the beds within the palace were nailed to the floor so that assassins couldn't hide under them. Nearly slipping and falling from the rug that slid under her feet, she clamors her way into the closet, closing the door behind her to keep the mountain of unfolded clothes from falling. '_Perfect!'_

Then she waits and listens for one minute.

Two minutes…

Five minutes…

'…_Is it safe ye-' _Muffled voices are heard down the echoing perpendicular hall causing Alacia to eep quietly. She puts her hand over her mouth to muffle her nervous breathing. "**STILL **can't find the princess? Well go search down the western hall!" A commanding male voice says to someone.

'_Yes! Exact __**OPPOSITE **__of where to loo-'_ her thoughts hit the pause button when hearing slow footsteps coming down the eastern hall…

'_Oh no…. noooo~…. Nononononononononononono-' "_**WAHHH!**" Alacia topples from atop the mountain of clothes when the door flies open, landing at the feet of a tall male looking down at her. He wore garbs of orange and black with golden trim on the edges, a blue underlying vest, and a confident smirk accompanied by the stern amber eyes peeking through his pale chestnut hair.

"The closet? Really?" He asks while lifting her up by her arms to her feet.

"No fair!" Alacia says with a cross of the arms and a pout to boot, "How'd you find me so quick, Atimi?"

"Because you always hide in bedroom of people you like the most. And it's either my or Mom and Dad's room." He said, smiling victoriously from having her method of hiding down to a science. Atimi puts his hands under her pouting arms to help her stand up. "But why you mostly pick your brother's room is still a mystery."

Alacia giggles a bit, coming out of her pout to hug his waist, which came up to her collarbone. "Because you are the only one who lets me get away with it ~ "

Atimi sighs and pats her head, "Only because you need a **FEW** more breaks in your day, not the entire day off."

Atimi's bedroom door flies open due to another girl barging in, but this one being around the age of 17, like Atimi. But instead of having royal-type clothing, she wears a bronze colored chainmail, arm bands and shin guards, along with a black underlying shirt and skirt and black boots. She walks in from an angle where Alacia isn't in her line of vision, the ribbon tied around her waist and back sways behind her, matching her hips.

"Atimi~ I was thinking since Alacia's missing, we could search for her together~" she said with her eyes half-closed and hands clasped together in front of her stomach in a dreamy sort of way.

"Um Haseena?" Atimi draws her attention to the clinging munchkin around his waist.

Hasenna's cheery demeanor disappears with a dejected "Oh. Well at least you found her, right?" She laughs nervously and looks around for something to distract them.

"LIAR! You just came in here to flirt with Atimi!" Alacia yells while pointing at Haseena, clasping her brother's arm with her free one.

'_And here we go_…' Atimi thinks in his mind with a sigh.

"I did not!" Haseena snaps back at her, "Wherever he goes, you appear anyways. And even if I _**did**_, why would it matter to his little sister?" A confident smirk spreads Hasenna's face while Alacia's face reddens.

"B-because you're supposed to be guarding the princess!"

"Who just so happened to run off into her brother's room! So why not do my job of keeping the royal family company _and_ guarding the princess~?" Haseena wraps her arms around Atimi's free arm, starting a small tug of war with Alacia.

Hearing all the arguing from down the hall, a man pokes his head into Atimi's room and says "Ah there you are princess!" He walks in wearing a blue robe top and bottom, designed with white lines of symbols leading to the symbols of Light on the back of the robe top and Hope on the front side of the robe bottoms. The unnamed Sun Palace scholar (there are so many, why name them?) walks over to Alacia and takes her by the hand, tugging her out of the room. "What were you thinking, playing hide and seek when you have a full-packed schedule? As a princess, it is imperative that you do not shirk off your studies!" He continues lecturing her on the importance of knowledge as they proceed down the hall.

Atimi and Haseena walk out to the hallway, watching her being escorted away. Instead of smirking in victory, Haseena folds her arms together against her stomach, her face showing a combination of sadness, empathy and pity. Then they both separated to their posts, knowing just how miserable Alacia had it, being the only female heir to Helia.

* * *

After her ritual of 8 hour study sessions, Alacia is released to the Palace Courtyard for a more… active lesson. She takes a deep breath as a gentle breeze carries over the smell of the freshwater reservoir surrounding the palace. Once she relaxes a bit, she walks over to her changing room, shedding her silky royal dress for a leathery set instead, but this torso left her arms uncovered up to her shoulder. She steps into a mirror to make sure that her auburn hair was properly tied back and then grabs a longbow almost as big as she was, along with a quiver full of arrows.

The young princess walks over to a range full of targets and dummies, not being encumbered by the large bow's weight, surprisingly. "Ready to begin, Princess?" a familiar voice asks from a passage leading to the opposite side of the courtyard.

Alacia smirks, always eager for this evening lesson. "I've been ready all day Atimi! I just hope you aren't getting too old to keep up with me~" Her smile grows as Atimi stands where the dummies are and reaches behind his back, pulling out a tri-sectioned staff. Alacia lines up her first arrow, aiming for a target high up in a tree and lets it sail through the air. The arrow never makes it to the target because of Atimi leaping along the tree's branches and snapping the arrow in two centimeters from the target.

"You're going to have to do much better than that if you want your reward," Atimi calls down at her from the tree, but instead of responding, Alacia prepares a volley of at least five arrows, then dashes at an immeasurable speed to the side. Ah yes, the royal family of Helia were known for their amazing physiques; even the youngest members being able to outmaneuver most champion level digimon, allowing them to fare very well against any brave assassins.

'_As long as I can hit at least one target, he treats me to town! Now just to get past him…!' _Her volley flies towards targets, all of them suffering from the same fate as the first arrow. Atimi spins his staff around as the last arrow falls. Alacia knows that her brother can lap circles around almost anyone in the family, but that doesn't discourage her as she reaches back for yet another volley.

From a large window on an upper level of the Sun palace, Haseena looks down at the practicing siblings while smiling. Despite Alacia's getting in the way of playful flirting with Atimi, her heart can't help but be warmed by the joy Alacia had while practicing with her brother. Haseena then sighs happily and turns around to continue walking to her destination: the library.

* * *

Alacia flops down on a bench, worn out from the long and unsuccessful session of training with Atimi, a graveyard of broken arrows lying before the targets. Atimi joins her in sitting, and instead of being mad about being too good, Alacia simply hugs her brother while smiling. "Thanks for practicing with me Atimi…"

He smiles and hugs her back, rubbing her head gently, "No problem, Alacia. One day you'll be able to get one by me."

Alacia smiles and giggles a bit, pushing him onto his side and then climbs up to sit on his ribs. "Oh shut up!"

Atimi laughs a bit as well, playfully nudging at her sides. "Ew, get your sweaty butt off me!" He is answered by a blur of hair smacking him in the face before Alacia stands up. He coughs and spits out a few strands her way as she makes her way inside.

* * *

After her bath, Alacia heads to dinner, and is supposedly sent to bed. But you know good and well that she will do the exact opposite. She quietly opens up her door, not even bothering to put on slippers, and tiptoes down the various corridors of the palace. Making sure the coast was clear, Alacia makes her way into the vast library, the bane of her existence –at least during the day it was. At night, Alacia loves to come in the library and read not books of history or mathematics, but of fiction and fantasy.

She goes to her favorite shelf of fantasy books (demanded by her 6th birthday) and browses the long shelves of what to read tonight. '_Hmmm… let's see… what to pick, what to pick… Nope… nope. Read that one already. Meh, read it twelve times… wait… what's that?_' An oddly colored spine of a book caught her attention. Even though it was in the section of the shelf where moonlight didn't reach it, the book's title glowed brightly. Being curious about never seeing such a book before, Alacia pulls it from the shelf and turned to the cover. "_Amestria, Realm of the Dream World_? Sounds neat!" She opens up the cover and flips to the first page. "What the…"

The pages were blank. From cover to cover, not a single word tainted the blank beige pages. She flips through it again and again, wondering what was wrong with the book and then thought she was dreaming. She shakes her head and puts the book down, it stopping at the front cover and the very first page. After looking around a bit, she looks down at the book again; she swore that the front cover definitely _did not_ have that paragraph there!

Alacia picks up the book, rubbing her thumb over the paragraph of text, feeling no ink smearing, but as if the words were imbedded in the page itself. '_Oh wow…'_ She skims the paragraph, getting a broad example of a mystic land where the imagination shouldn't focus on the line of someone else's thought, but rather their own path. '_Hmmm…_' Alacia gets up and gets a pen from a nearby desk and starts writing along the first page, trying to come up with something.

The ink didn't even touch the page. No matter how hard she bared down, the pen would not print on that book! She tried it on a sheet of paper and it flowed beautifully, but in that specific book, it was as if it had no effect at all. She started to get a little upset at the mysterious tome, her fingers clenching it a bit tightly. And before her very eyes, an invisible cursor starts to print letter after letter before her very eyes. Her eyes followed the sentences carefully, reading about how there was a kingdom run by the anger of a tyrant, his rage ruling over the inhabitants with an iron fist and crushing all those who opposed him with his undying fury.

Alacia grimaces at the thought of such a ruler, her hand unconsciously clasping the book so tightly. When calming down, the page's words disappear just as mysteriously as it appeared, leaving the page blank once again. Alacia puts a finger to her chin and starts to wonder why it suddenly started writing and then-

"Just what are you doing up so late, young lady?" a deep male voice said behind her, making her squeal in surprise. She whips her head around to see Atimi standing behind her, smiling as he did his best impression of their father.

Alacia lightly smacks his arm, "I told you not to do that! You nearly scared the life outta me!"

"I know, I know, but I came to warn you: Mom was curious about a new theory for a failsafe flood diversion canal the scholars proposed and is coming to do research on previous logs of data. It would be best if she didn't find us here." Alacia nods and stands up quickly, closing her new mysterious book and tucking it under one of her arms, then grabs Atimi's hand with the other. Sighing a bit, Atimi smiles and walks slowly with his younger sister down the quiet and darkened halls, enjoying the company.

Alacia was always happy whenever her brother treated her like a sister, instead of a princess like most others do. Her mind drifted between reviewing how shut off she was through the day and the loneliness accompanying it, to the acceptance and joy she feels whenever Haseena or Atimi are around and not on official business. She closes her eyes and puts her head to his arm while they walk, wanting to linger as long as possible. The intersection of the hallways where their bedrooms are is bathed in moonlight,. Alacia turns to fully hug her brother. "Good night Atimi," she says before walking and turning to her room.

Alacia climbs up to her bed, getting settled into the sea of blankets and then re-opens her newly acquired book. To her surprise, the entire first page was now covered in text! She eagerly starts reading the new text, it describing about an inhabitant of the moonlit ponds at night, the creature being the height of a small child yet had the qualities of a rabbit. Two large eyes and two sets of ears with bands of blue and white on them. Alacia was greatly intrigued at how something so small and cute sounding could be a night dwelling creature, how it could lull others to sleep with the twitch of an ear and then shred with her claws. At the end of the description, there was some extremely small text, causing her to put the book close to her face.

The small writing said for her to turn to the center of the book. Curious, Alacia puts the book on her lap, flipping through the pages to the center until something catches her eye in front of her window. In the moonlight of her windowpane, stood the same creature described in the book, staring up at her with an innocent smile. Alacia's eyes widen as she realizes that she was not imagining it. "H-how did you get in here?" she asks in a hushed whisper.

The creature points to her and says, "Through you. Your thoughts formed me from Amestria and then I was put here." Alacia notes that even though the creature was described as a dark force of nature, she had a pleasing feminine voice.

"… I made you? Wait… what's your name?"

The creature smiles, "Follow the instructions and find out."

Alacia hurriedly flips through the pages again, reaching the middle of the book where the pages could no longer turn. At the last flexible page, a name was written in a decorative cursive font and read: Lunamon. Imbedded in the unmoving pages was a light blue digivice. Alacia's eyes widen as she picks it up, rubbing it around in her hand, making sure it wasn't a fake.

The new digi destined then went to sleep, while her spawned partner watched the courtyard during the night.

* * *

The next day, Alacia went through her lessons with a surprising lack of defiance or sarcasm. She finished her math quietly. She studied the last dynasty of a far off providence. She studied how to quickly pass bills in a stubborn senate. And when her evening lesson came with Atimi, she did not bring her archery gear.

Atimi was not alone during that evening session either. Haseena had come out to join them that day. Both Haseena and Atimi smile when Alacia pulls out her own digivice, fumbling with it to try and call Lunamon out of it.

"H-Hikari, realize!" The Lunamon appeared before the awaiting trio, crossing her arms shyly. Atimi then slipped his hand into his pant's back pocket, pulling out an orange and silver digivice, while Haseena loosened her ribbon on her back, pulling out her purple and black digivice from the knot.

+++++ Flashback Ended++++

Zemerick removes his hand from Alacia's forehead, taking in Alacia's entire story of meeting her partner. "Now young Helian, why do you fight alongside your partner?"

Alacia looks down a bit, and then clenches one of her hands. "When I met Hikari, it was the first time I realized it. She was made from my desire of freedom; freedom of the oppressive institute that was predestined for my life. With her, I don't have to be bound to just one path for my life." Her hand releases, and a smile grows on her face, "She is my eternally changing kismet."

Zemerick smiles, "Interesting sentiment for someone so young." He takes her hand into his, giving her an Aura Inhibitor. "Now remember, the Inhibitors themselves aren't a sudden boost of strength; they are only a marking to show when you are on the verge of a breakthrough."

Suddenly, a man toting a staff with a blinking orb at the top, the color switching from dull grey to a bright red. Zemerick's face shifts into a frown, clearly evident even through his mask. He then gets up and goes over to the man. "Don't tell me they're trying _again_."

The man shakes his head. "They aren't trying again. They _succeeded…"_

Ayame tugs at Zemerick's flowing cloak. "Do you mean that the-"

"Indeed. The Seadramon broke Zenko's barrier."

* * *

DUN DUN DUN! :O

Yay another chapter done and wow, it feels like a longer one than usual…

Anywho, I dragged my feet with it from a lack of inspiration (Thanks school for draining my imagination e.e)

Takumi7: I can testify to the above statement being true. I doubt if we'll live until the refreshing spring break…. Additionally, if you are reading this series please review. It doesn't have to be "reviewing" but just say something so that I can get a clear count of how many people are reading. Thank you~. (now he has me doing it too…)

Taka67: Cause you know you want to

Now read and review, even though most people don't .-.'


	22. A Duel of the Ultimates Pt 1

Last time in _Ayame's Chronicles_, Falx had taken a trip to Zenko Forest, home of the Renamon, in order to discover how they could achieve their ultimate digivolution. During the process of gaining a special device called an Aura Inhibitor, they say it will serve as a catalyst for when it finally their time. However, their time within the village is cut short by a sudden outbreak of Seadramon attacking the edge of Zenko Forest. There will be fighting! Whoo!

Zemerick walks behind the throne he sat upon at the rear wall of the shrine, two torches igniting when he gets near them. He waves his hands over the twin flames, their hue first changing from a reddish-orange to a hazy silver, then growing in height and width, soon making a screen of silver fire containing blurry images that sharpen within seconds.

Falx gathers around behind Zemerick as the picture clearly shows first and third person perspectives of a defensive squad of Kyuubimon battling a horde of Seadramon on the coast of Zenko forest. Ayame's eyes widen when seeing such a large group of Seadramon decimating the coast of their forest: one Kyuubimon/chunk of land at a time.

"I don't remember seeing all those guys on the way in here…" Rua says while glancing at the oncoming sea serpents. "Why are they even attacking?"

"The Seadramon have always thought that the lake surrounding the forest was too small for dwelling, and now they want to knock down some walls for renovations," Zemerick responded. "And it'll be a while until the Taomon Taskforce to get there…" He turns around and looks down at Ayame, making her stand up a bit straighter. "If you would like to make a good impression on the villagers, now would be an ideal time."

Ayame says nothing at first; looking upon the rampaging Deep Savers, then back to Zemerick. "How fast can we get there?"

Suri perks up a bit, "Wait what? Why so sudd-" she is cut off by Takami nudging her ribs.

"If you head toward the small spring behind the shrine, I can relocate you to another one close to the coast, "Zemerick says while moving over to a table with various circles connected by think lines. He holds a finger on a circle towards the center and drags another finger from the same circle to another on the far left of the table, highlighting a path to connect them. "Leave when you're ready, I must tend to some things."

The silver fire dies out as Zemerick phases away into thin air, whisking himself off to another location. Ayame turns around soon after, making her way t the shrine's exit. Suri tugs at Takami's sleeve while the rest of Falx follow. "So… why are we going if the village can handle it?"

"It's like a Rite of Passage between Ayame, her brother and her mother to show them how strong she's gotten since she was away, ya know?" Takami says as he watches his partner glance back at him in assurance. The rest of the short trip outside was silent until reaching what looked like a spring with a cobbled surrounding.

Jinsa inches near the water, "Is this what he was talking about? How is this supposed to help us?"

Ayame steps forward, her feet leaving strange ripples in the water's surface, disappearing as they get closer to the center. "The 'Spring Rings', as we call it here, are like ripples in space that connect two locations like a tunnel. You step into the middle and wait for a bit, then appear in the opposite spring." She then continues walking forward and the air around her soon becomes a bit hazy and shimmering, her figure disappearing. Falx hesitantly follows her into the center; little did they know that they weren't the _only_ ones interested in getting around quickly…

After being whisked away to the connecting Spring, Falx finds themselves in a sparsely thin grove, the smell of water and dust poignant in the air. A few hundred meters westward, another large explosion is heard, releasing a new cloud of debris into the air.

Ayame and Takami rush into the full-scale battle, seeing both injured Kyuubimon and Seadramon slinking away behind their allies for cover. Even a few getting deleted in mid-air; a Seadramon releases an Ice Arrow while a Kyuubimon uses a Dragon Wheel, both the attacks avoiding each other and hitting their targets, turning them into Digi-tama.

Takami flinches a bit as another Renamon rushes to retrieve the egg of its fallen comrade, then storing it with the others on land. "…Guys!" He turns to his arriving teammates, "You all have to help get the Tama and the injured back to the village while Ayame and I try to slow their advancement!"

"Are you crazy? At least two of us should stay here for cover while the other two help with transport!" Alacia yells back at him while a stray Ice Arrow lands dangerously close to where the digi-tama.

"There's too many for only two of us to do it with no help! And besides…" Takami turns away from them, ending the discussion, then runs toward an injured Kyuubimon who is currently being coiled up by a Seadramon. "This is something _we_ _**HAVE**_ to do!" With a powerful leap, thanks to his Aegis boosting him, he gets close enough to the bewildered Seadramon's face, landing a powerful jab in its lower jaw. As the Seadramon uncoils and falls back, thrashing about in pain, the trapped Kyuubimon makes its escape and quickly thanks Takami.

Takami glances at Ayame, his hand glowing brightly with his blazing blue digi-soul as she nods to him, signaling she's ready. "Digi-soul, Charge!"

Ayame takes a running start as the light of her digivolution hits her from Takami's digivice. Once emerging from her digivolution shell, she leaps at the recovering Seadramon, landing a Koshugeki on its lower jaw, turning it into a digi-tama. "One snake down, only 12… 19… 28 more to go." Her head turns to look at Takami, "got anything to speed up the process?"

Takami smiles confidently , then uses his digivice to combine multiple digi-modification cards into a compact program, using them all at once. "You bet! Digi-modify: Mow-Down Activate!" On his digivice's screen, three icons show up at once, showing a Dark Chip, Power Plug-in N and a very exclusive Gold Drill.

Ayame instantly feels the effect, having her power increase by over 110% and sees little targets on all of the opposing Seadramon. Taking careful aim, she lunges down and then dashes towards the lake. "Dragon Wheel!" Everyone within the battle could literally feel the difference in intensity; the originally small ball of flame suddenly growing at least twice in size, then releasing a large flame dragon, not that much smaller than the Seadramon themselves. Ayame's attack pierces through target after target, not losing any momentum from impact or distance. Once Ayame's attack ends, 27 more Deep Saver eggs plop into the water. Unfortunately, that was only the initial wave, and at least three times as many Seadramon surface in the distance, all looking eager to continue the bombardment.

Takami's face pales as he tries to remember how long of a cool down Mow Down was. 'I am starting to wonder how many there really are…' Ayame says in her mind as she climbs out of the water and onto a rock, her fur dripping wet from landing in the water.

Both Ayame's and Takami's teeth clench as a few more surface nearer the coast, making them a priority. Takami runs out over to the shallowest part of the water where it only came up to his knees, then maneuvers himself behind a Seadramon, and clasps onto a thinner portion of its tail. He then gives it a powerful yank, actually whipping its body around into an oncoming Dragon Wheel, reverting it to an egg, mere feet from the edge of the beach. 'This is getting bad…'

Ayame squints at the horizon, curious as to why the oncoming Seadramon weren't speeding towards them and notices that most of them are positioned with their mouths were pointed towards the sky…" What are they… Oh..SHIT!" The serpents then start firing off a barrage of Ice Arrows, arching them high into their so they cover more distance and gain more momentum for impact. Ayame dashes over to Takami and the able-bodied Kyuubimon, spreading her long tails behind her. "All together now!" The rest catch on quickly and mimic her stance. "Fox Tail Inferno!"

To counter the flurry of falling icicles, all the Kyuubimon release a volley of flaming orbs, also arching them to either reduce or completely annihilate the Ice Arrow barrage. Their plan works for the most part, except for the fact that some icicles went further than intended, one heading right toward the Spring Ring!

Ayame gasps and sprints as fast as she can to intercept it, but the grove brush cuts down on her mobility. She tries to clear a shot for the Ice Arrow by using Dragon Wheel, only to be snared by a few vines, missing the target…

"NO! Our only way back is about to be-"

"Diamond Storm!" a voice yells from a patch of glass near the spring, jet black shards cutting through any vegetation and shredding the ice projectile into harmless shards. Ayame could recognize that attack from anywhere.

"Yuan! Why are you here?"

**End of chapter 22**

A/N:

I'm gonna cut it short there. Been procrastinating for about 3 months because I haven't had much time to type due to school. Then that two week summer vacation gameritis got to me = w = mah eyes hurt from staring at a screen…

I'll upload the second half … eventually XD just check your emails bi-daily.


	23. A Duel of the Ultimates: Finale

In our last chapter of _Ayame's Chronicles_, Falx had finally arrived in Zenko Forest but their rest time was cut short by an alarm of Seadramon attacking the coast. Takami and Alacia bravely nominated themselves to go to the coast for battle while the others help evacuate villagers closet to the battlefield. At first, Ayame held up quite decently amongst the waves of Seadramon, but when it came into a pinch moment, a familiar face arrives….

* * *

"Yuan! Why are you here?" She wiggles herself free and then runs over to him, rubbing his cheek with hers.

He laughs a bit and pets her head, "I overheard Zemerick talking to the Taomon Taskforce about launching a counter-attack on some Seadramon and decided to beat them here." They both run back to the battling Kyuubimon and Takami. Yuan's eyes widen a bit when seeing the lake full of Deep Saver eggs. "Ayame, did you get rid of all of these on your own?"

She shakes her head no, "Not alone, no. I was able to go through so many of them at once because of _Takami's_ help. He is my partner after all…"

Yuan looks over at Takami then walks up to pat him on the back firmly. "Not bad, for a human that is." He chuckles again and then steps in front of the awaiting Kyuubimon. "Now I don't know about you guys, but…" He squints as he starts trying to count all the approaching Seadramon, "I am getting sick of all these mother fuckin' snakes in this mother fuckin' lake!" (HELL YEAH!)

Yuan takes a strong leap into the ear, then is enveloped into a grey sphere that seems oddly familiar to Takami. 'Is he…?'

"Renamon Matrix Digivolve to…!" Yuan exclaims from inside his sphere, his voice getting noticeably deeper as the sphere starts to crack, then explodes, revealing a large humanoid fox-creature, looking like a taller and stronger Renamon, but wore a lose fitted shirt and pants, along with a yin-yang symbol bearing hat. His fur lessened in intensity in terms of darkness, going from a dark blue and black to grey and white Yuan lands gracefully on a fallen tree trunk in the water. "Doumon!"

Some of the closest Seadramon look quite worried as the ultimate level Virus type makes his appearance. Wasting no time, Yuan reaches into his robe top for a bag of talismans and pulls out one. He then tosses it over his shoulder and it lands on what seems like an invisible wall. The talisman glows with a grayish-purple hue as it starts to replicate itself; first a few dozens, then hundreds and then a thousand, eventually multiplying to more than one could even imagine.

Ayame smiles as her brother's expertise with talismans, knowing most Taomon couldn't achieve that level of control unless they were on the verge of becoming megas. The Seadramon then try to turn around and make a hasty retreat.

Yuan smirks, "Oh no you don't! You aren't done here until I say so! Jugon Satsu!" The endless wall of talismans spring to life, racing to every last Seadramon within sight and latch onto various vital points on their bodies, such as the mouth, head and stomach. Their retreats slow down as the talisman's curse drains them of their energy, storing it within… With a wave of his fingers, Yuan simultaneously signals the talismans to split down the center, releasing the stored energy in an explosion, severely damaging the Seadramon and reverting them into digi-tamas. From the shore, it all looked like red and purple fireworks dancing over the water's horizon.

"Assassinations aren't assassinations if you make them flashy," Ayame says to her brother while nipping at his tail as he chuckles triumphantly.

"Wait, wait… I thought Taomon were data types and were a different color?" Takami says, still trying to understand deviations in a digivolution line.

Yuan turns to him, then leaps off of the tree trunk and back to land, "That's like me asking 'I thought all humans grew up to look the exact same way'"

Before a rebuttal passes from Takami's lips, a dark vortex of ice, water and wind nails Yuan in the back, making him howl from the pain. The sheer force of the attack is able to launch all three of them backwards into the brush of the forest, despite Yuan taking the brunt of the attack.

Gritting her fangs, Ayame sits up to try and spot the source of the vortex, seeing yet another Seadramon on the lake, but something was off… the javelin on its head was spiked and the color pattern was mostly sanguine and black.'…"That's no Seadramon!"

Yuan growls audibly as he rises back to his feet, "resorting to cheap shots as usual, WaruSeadramon?"

'Waru…?' "That's an ultimate virus type like Yuan!" Takami says to Ayame while wondering just how they could protect the ravaging fully prepared ultimate from decimating the forest even further.

"Whatever makes you fluffballs get the hell out of the way sooner." WaruSeadramon hisses back with a malicious smile. "Darkstrom!" From his mouth, another black vortex burst out, this time aiming at the Kyuubimon currently falling back.

Doumon quickly reaches in his bag for another talisman and tosses it in front of the target, yelling "Talisman spell!". A transparent bubble forms around them with an inverted yin-yang symbol under their feet, spreading out the focus of the malefic vortex, but the shield still suffers from several large fissures around it.

'That damn thing gets stronger every time he uses it!" Yuan releases another assassination talisman and aims its copies at WaruSeadramon for another Jugon Satsu. To his surprise, WaruSeadramon charges _into_ the flurry of talismans, releasing a volley of Darkstrom, the colliding winds actually boosting off of each other, swirling the talismans together and detonating them before they come anywhere close to their target.

Yuan hardly has any time to even wince, stricken with disbelief of his strongest ability was beaten. He comes to his senses all too late, for the howling winds had already made a vacuum to suck objects into it… The next thing he knew, he was staring up at the gray, cloudy sky. He couldn't feel much else, aside that he was facing upward. His eyes manage to look down, seeing that he was indeed still in one piece, albeit a very mangled piece.

'h-h…How am I still even alive after all of that…?' His eyes trail along the ground around him, finding that it was awfully … leveled compared to the trench that was around him. At the end of a trench was the source, a nearly standing golden wall of light with a mangled body belonging to none other than his sister, Ayame.

Takami managed to just barely activate an E-22 program before his partner ran in trying to save her brother. The E-22 program makes any digimon, regardless of current level, achieve it's highest level for evolution. So for Ayame, an image of her as a Sakuyamon using Amethyst Mandala, forming a protective barrier in front of herself and her brother. The last-ditch effort was only able to curb the damage, for it was not the power of a true mega.

To both the surprise of both Yuan and WaruSeadramon, Takami and Ayame manage to make their way back onto their feet, despite the massive amount of damage they just received. How could that even be possible? They shouldn't be able to blink without screaming let alone stand… Yuan's thoughts wondered on, unable to hear what the two were saying, despite their mouths, and WaruSeadramon's roar rumbling the ground below him.

Despite being knocked senseless, the downed Doumon could still feel something; something… warm. No… this was hot- burning even! But where was it coming from? The only thing that could have produced any source of heat was his sister, standing adamantly on all fours in front of her partner. And the boy… that glowing on his fist… seems to have spread all over him. Suddenly, four words clearly broke through Yuan's silent world as Takami's hand rose into the air.

"Digi-soul, Full Charge!"

His sister, Ayame, is enveloped in a digivolution sphere no different from his, but instead of her fur darkening, it remained a bright orange and white fur pattern just like her rookie. Aside from the color differences, the siblings were twins when it came to their ultimate forms.

WaruSeadramon snarls at the Taomon in front of him, trying to size up Ayame's new form. "So you look like your raggedy friend on the ground now, like that will change anything!"

Ayame's glare soon silences the viral serpent, holding out one of her arms, spawning the trademark Taomon Brush and turns to her partner, her voice sounding deeper, yet silky. "Takami, do you still have that attribute program you copied off of Rua? I am going to wrap this up in one go and want to make sure he stays down…"

Takami thinks back to the day before, remembering quite clearly where he stored a specific program, and with a bit of scrolling, the screen is full of rapidly streaming code, "Attribute Change: Vaccine!"

A hazy white light envelops Ayame's body as she raises her brush into the air, drawing a symbol on the air before her. WaruSeadramon would have none of that and fires off a Darkstrom from near point-blank range, creating another vacuum that made Yuan wince at the painful memory. Ayame's face did not even budge, finishing her symbol. "Talisman of Light!" The symbol then grows brightly and rushes through the oncoming mini-storm, dissipating it instantly and attaching firmly onto WaruSeadramon's neck, pausing only for a second before detonating, a huge spiral of explosive energy encasing the defeated serpent, reverting him into yet another deep saver egg.

Ayame smiles for the first time since her digivolution and turns back to her companions, de-digivolving back to her champion form, scooting her brother onto her back and continues evacuating the surviving Kyuubimon through the Spring Ring.

* * *

After helping clear up the incident at the coast, Ayame and Takami rejoin the rest of Falx in the village, surprising them by how battered Takami's aegis was, but went into little detail as to how much of a battle they were truly in. Yuan is returned home with his mother who promptly starts nursing him back to self-sustainment before Falx stays at the village's inn for the night to recover their strength for the trip back.

In the morning, Falx finally prepares to set out, Takami and Ayame trailing behind the group to talk about how they should tell everyone else about their new evolution before something caught Ayame's eye. Wrapped in bandages and leaning on a certain woman they were well acquainted with was none other than Ayame's mother and brother.

Yuan locks eyes with Takami, seeming to search for words to say before shifting his focus downward. "I… was wrong, huma- er… Takami; you seem to take good care of my sister even when I couldn't…"

Ayame blinks at first, but then giggles and nudges her partner's arm, "That's about as good of an apology he could even muster~"

Her brother only grumbles as her mother clears her throat, "Ayame, I know you have unlocked a new power, and it was only by being with your human partner that it happened," her smile starts to fade, "but… do not hesitate to come back every once and a while. If you have a question about anything, such as how to refine your power, feel free to ask… alright?"

Ayame nods, then hugs her family one last time before running with Takami to catch up with her team, her mother's somber words raising questions about her future. 'Refine my power…What could she mean by that…?'

* * *

End of chapter 23

Whoo! That there was a long one! And yay for summer dragging my feet :D anywho, I've got lots of ideas of where to take this little story in the future so stay tuned! Ayame bids you to! :O


	24. Sybek's Challenge

Last time on _Ayame's Chronicles, _Falx had journeyed to Zenko Forest, Ayame's old home in order to search out wisdom for unlocking their Ultimate digivolutions. Unbeknownst to the rest of their team, Ayame and Takami had unlocked their own digivolution in the skirmish between a group of Kyuubimon and Seadramon. Now let's jump forward to the morning after their return to camp, shall we?

* * *

Takami groans as he climbs out of bed, his arms still sore from the previous day. Izuru's painkiller medicine she keeps in case of emergencies at camp came in handy, but now he had to get used to moving around on his own instead of just laying there or letting Ayame put him over her shoulders. The first thing he notices outside is a group of campers rushing to the mess hall, some chattering about something exciting being announced. Not seeing any of his cabin mates around, Takami decides to take a look for himself.

Once in the cafeteria, almost all the camper's eyes were glued to various screens that relay DATS related news worldwide. 'Geez, did someone just make a deal for world peace using DATS or something?'

"Listen up all you up and coming Tamers and Digis out there, DATS is hosting its tri-annual tournament for the Lunis Festival in the illustrious Sybek City! All official DATS agents and their partners are officially welcome to attend this event as either a duo or for the single tournament! Entrants will compete for the title of Robust Tamers, or Commendante Tamers, each rank holding their own special perks! But this year we're spicing things up a little!" The female announcer goes on, making some of the campers hold their breath as the screens switch to the prize section, "The winners of the Duo Tournament will receive a very specially crafted DATS Mobius!" The screen shows what looks like a medium sized recreational vehicle, but with the DATS logo on it. "This amazing craft of technology can easily manage up to 6 individual tamers, their digimon partners, and any supplies they could need when out on the field for a mission. In addition, we've made sure to make this as sturdy and secure as possible, using the fabled Chrome Digizoid our other Robust tamers have obtained to make sure this marvel is able to handle any terrain the digital or human world could dish out! As for the single tournament, we have a very nice prize of 1.5T waiting for the winner to take it!"

Takami blinks a few times at the amount offered. '1.5T? If I remember right… an M worth of bits is equivalent of a thousand, so a T must be millions…!'

"All top placements in both tournaments, 2nd from 8th, shall receive a 250M consolation prize for their efforts. The festival is starting within the next few hours, so be sure to come down to Sybek City!" Once the news broadcast ends, the room erupts in chatter, Takami already out the door in search of his friends.

* * *

"You're serious? One of us could have a chance at winning some super vehicle for winning this tournament?" Rua repeats while lounging on a soft beanbag chair in the recreational lounge.

"For the sixth time, yes! If two of us can actually win this thing, we could all use and enjoy it when we go on missions!" Takami says with a sigh, getting a bit winded from having to explain over and over again.

"That'd be an awful lot of competition so the chances are very slim for us actually winning. I mean there are _a lot_ of people who have been doing this longer than us and could easily beat us if they had an ultimate level digivolution or whatever. Then we'd be screwed in that match."

"That wouldn't be much of a problem for us," Alacia states, surprising them both due to her not usually interjecting in conversations, "nothing _we_ can't handle, right Takami?"

"Uh… Right! We can dominate the duo tournament if we just think about it a bit. With a combination of our two data types, we'd be able to handle virus types easy enough due to our Nightmare Soldiers and Deep Saver attributes, along with our Nature spi-"

Suri groans loudly and stands up to arch her back to stretch, "Blahblahblah, too much talking! Can't we just get going already?"

* * *

Two days after Takami recovers, Izuru sends both them and any daring competitors to the pre-determined coordinates of Sybek City, making them all appear on a transportation pad in the Welcome Center. The room is full of chattering agents of all ages, all meeting and greeting both new and old friends or just conversing amongst whoever is around them as they exit the building. Suri hurriedly squeezes through gaps between people, due to her dislike of crowds, and exits the room as fast as she can. Alacia takes both her and Takami's digivices to register for their duo tournament before returning his digivice, then sets out to figure out where Suri ran off to.

Outside, they found her staring intently at a large news reel that constantly updates new events throughout the city. Her eyes widen as she finds an event that interests her. She says, "Ice cream sampling at a commissioned art show… Oh mah effin gawds~" and bolts off in the direction the update said.

Rua, on the other hand, didn't have to look so far for his source of entertainment. He casually strolls over to an outdoor food court, plopping down at a table of a group of girls to converse with, causing some of them to give their friends 'the look', get up and leave while giggling. Not being discouraged, Rua just gets up to try the process again at another table.

"Wait! How are we supposed to find each other later on?" Takami yells out in vein, his voice getting lost in the bustling streets.

Alacia pats his shoulder gently as she walks by him, "Leave everything to me~ I'll just take care of a few things and round you all up later. But go have some fun now, the competition doesn't start until two days." Before Takami has the chance to even ask about her odd agenda, Alacia, too, merges into the crowd, disappearing like the rest of the group.

Takami decides to meander around town, keeping his eyes open for something interesting. Street after street, block after block; it all seemed to burst out to whoever is passing by. Whether it is the town's perimeter towers, which could easily scrape any passing cloud to the near-infinite flashing signs perched on top of buildings to draw in business. After about thirty long minutes of walking, he finally finds a certain building worth interest: D-Terminal.

Under its title, it has several large screens of showing many digimon and their partners combating opposing pairs in some sort of tournament. Upon asking someone nearby what all the screens were for, Takami learns that this was their Battle Simulation week. Then the person also points out a specific screen, it being larger than the others and has only one picture on the screen. It was a peculiar looking man, bearing a gold-trimmed black cloak that covered most of his back, arms and top half of his torso. Underneath it, he had on what looked like a blue-green tunic that shrouded the rest of his figure, outside of the one arm that had a book firmly wedged under it. The title above and below him clearly read: K. Naoe- Newest Hall of Famer.

Once Takami enters the establishment, he actually passes by the famed Naoe who is on his way out. Usually, Naoe walks around with his half-lidded eyes scanning the ground or having his face buried in a book, except for this one time he is passing by Takami, shooting him a quick glance from behind, as if something was …different. He chooses to shrug it off and exit the building once Takami reaches the front desk for registration.

"Alrighty young man, name and number?" A female receptionist chirps from behind the desk, already typing feverishly, her fingers almost appearing as a blur.

"You want my number?" Takami asks blinking in confusion, "Do you ask all guys that when they walk in or am I just special?"

The woman pauses from her typing and actually laughs at his response. "I meant your _**DATS**_ Agent number. Didn't the one in charge of your outpost tell you about it?"

"Maybe… but the number escapes me. How can I get it again?"

"I can just look you up in our database. Now, your name and the name of your commander please."

"My name is Takami Kusajiki and I am under the direction of Miss Reimel Izuru. I might not show up yet, since it's my first summer as an a-"

"Oh my!" The receptionist exclaims, already having read over his portfolio by the time he finished his sentence. "According to your portfolio, I think I know that you'd excel in the King of the Hill challenge here. It starts in a few minutes."

"King of the Hill? What do we have to do in it; some sort of capture the flag thing?"

"King of the Hill is a mini-tournament of rookie level digimon fighting alongside their partners in a changing terrain. They must defeat their enemy DATS digimon in order to move on. The further you get, the better the prize. After winning nine times in a row, you could be eligible for an official promo of Sybek City's Lunis Festival for the big tournament in a few days. Interested?"

"You had me at 'defeat'~"

* * *

End of chapter 24

A/N: I smell new characters on the horizon… I can feel it in my (achy) bones! And whoo for first chapter of senior year! READ AND REVIEW. I BID THEE TO DO IT.

Takumi, the newer staff member: Hahaha, your bones aint aching enough yet. And another new chapter soon? Something tells me chronic laziness will kill it


	25. Curiosi

In our last issue of _Ayame's Chronicles_, Falx travelled to Sybek City for the annual Lunis Festival. Takami and Alacia sign up for the oncoming duo tournament in order to net a large prize for their group. In the meantime, Takami has temporarily parted ways from his friends in order to find entertainment, which brought him down to the D-Terminal today for their King of the Hill challenge. I wonder how that will work out…

* * *

Takami stands proudly on his elevated platform, not having to move for the last nine matches. Ayame has always managed to dominate her opponents somehow, like one patch where she was able to toss around a Drimogemon by its horn and tossing it around or Diamond Storming a Falcomon, bring it down to her level and then beat it with experience.

Down on the rocky field, Ayame finishes playing with a Goblinmon by bombarding its Goblin Bombs with a Diamond Storm. Ayame arches her back and stands on her toes to stretch as her latest opponent is carried off of the battlefield. A rowdy crowd of people who either lost (and envy) or admire this amazing fox waiting anxiously for her final opponent to emerge. To some of their surprise, a young woman takes the stand for the opposing side. She wore a spaghetti strap light blue top and a pair of light blue jeans, both of which hugged her figure quite tastefully.

"This is our last match for our King of the Hill match!" The announcer says over the intercom, "Takami and his Renamon have been blazing through their competition while our other competitors, Sera and her partner Celes, the Fanbeemon have been floating on a gentle breeze for theirs! How will these two conflicting styles sort out?"

Sera tucks her dirty blond hair behind her ear before holding out her pink and blue striped digivice, releasing her Fanbeemon out to the field. Ayame groans at the sight of yet another enemy capable of flight while Takami tries to scope out the opposing tamer. From across the room, her half-lidded sapphire eyes locked onto his the moment she entered, showing just how oflittle interest her last few matches were.

The match starts and Celes soars high into the air, floating out of range from most of Ayame's attacks. Ayame had quite enough of being kited and charges up a Power Paw. Celes looks down a bit confused as to what her opponent had in mind, but quickly veers to the left when Ayame manages to release her attack from a distance. Three hazy-blue and white claw marks whoosh right by the insect leaving a deep indention on the ceiling. 'A melee attack turning into a ranged one?' Celes screams in her head, 'How did she manage to do that?'

One of Sera's eyebrows perks up as a few puffs of dust from the impact waft her way. Ayame smirks as her arms continue to glow, planning on seeing how well of a dancer this bug was. She then systematically swings one arm after another, noting just how Celes dodged. Celes, on the other hand, takes note of Ayame's attacks a straight line and unable to deviate in path, giving her a chance to dodge with relative ease.

Takami never takes his eyes off the mysterious Sera unable to break their eye contact. Luckily, Celes' dodging came into his line of vision and he takes note of a certain pattern he found… interesting. "Ayame! Hold on for a second, take a look around and then go in for an indirect approach!"

Ayame's ears tuck back on her head, wondering what he meant as she glanced around. A small pebble taps her on the nose, bringing her attention up to the shredded ceiling. She notices a certain strip that _wasn't_ hit, making a recurring pattern of Celes' dodging. With a bit of devious planning, she cuts off her enhanced slashes, and releases a flurry of fur strands, turning them into diamond-like projectiles aimed at her target."Diamond Storm!" The shards race toward Celes in waves, leaving only tiny gaps between them. Celes winces when she sees that she can't make an escape so easily and has to exert effort to make one.

"Venom Shot! Celes Yells as her sting glows a vivid purple and launches from her abdomen. The large needle plows through part of Ayame's attack, deflecting just enough for her to slip through. "You'll have to do better than that if you plan on hitting me!"

Ayame smirks to herself and chimes inwardly, "Wasn't aiming at you…~" A few falling rocks hit Celes on the back, pulling her attention upwards. She squeaks briefly before the ceiling above her shatters and collapses from being battered by a combination of Ayame's attacks. Ayame rushes under the mini-avalanche, then leaps through the rubble, working her way up to the yellow and black-striped target.

Celes has absolutely no intention of getting into melee range of such a wily opponent and starts beating her wings even faster than usual, exclaiming, "Call 88!" Ayame hesitates on a leap as one Fanbeemon suddenly replicates into many more, all of them swarming around her.

"Two can play at that game! Fox Void Shift!" Ayame rips a small rectangle in the air, opening a rift where three more copies of a particular Renamon emerge. Even though Ayame's clones lacked certain qualities as the original, such as pupils, they were just as agile as the source. The team of Renamon leaps from the rubble on the battle ground and through the air, destroying every Fanbeemon clone, but sometimes at the cost of being injured. Eventually, only the originals remain and their partners must intervene in order to gain an advantage.

"For a Renamon, she isn't bad at all; first real challenge we've seen ever since we got here," Sera finally says, some interest returning to her face as she reaches for her back pocket.

"I could say the same thing about you and your Fanbeemon, but then it would sound like I don't have any other ideas up my sleeve," Takami replies.

To his surprise, Takami notices Sera smiling at his comment. "I guess you can say that, so I might as well go all out so I don't have to find out~" She takes out her Digivice from her back pocket and activates her last resort program to wrap up the match, "Digi-modify: Life Gambit!"

Takami frowns, already feeling uneasy about the name of her program, "So what's your custom one designed to do?"

Celes flies down lower on the field, her body taking on a strange glow, Ayame leering at her with distrust. Sera replies to Takami's question, saying "With Life Gambit, Celes sacrifices her remaining strength into one move. If you can take it, then you can counter attack her for the win. But if you can't handle it, then I have my last victory needed~"

Ayame's eyes widen as Celes flies toward her, now seeing how this could possibly end badly. "Gear Stinger!" The barbed tip glows much more violently, launching at Ayame from only a few meters away. Even if she leapt, there wasn't a chance of her not being clipped by at least one of the six barbs flying at her.

An explosion followed by a cloud of dust covers a large portion of the battlefield, clouding the vision of the spectators from above. Celes emerges from the cloud first, wavering in her ascent from being worn out from the program burning through her remaining energy. Sera smiles to herself, looking down at the field, expecting to see a downed Renamon once the dust cleared; but to her surprise, there wasn't anything there aside from the craters Celes made.

Celes darts her head around quickly, trying to locate her elusive opponent. Being so vulnerable made her frantic and before she knew it, her body made a hard collision with the ground. From behind, Ayame stands proudly, happy that she was able to use her Power Paw attack as she should: close range. 'How… could she… have gotten there…?' Celes ponders as her consciousness fades.

"ANNNNND THAAAT'S IT! This intense face off has come to a conclusion! Takami and his partner, Renamon, are the champions of our King of the Hill tournament! Let's give them a round of applause!" The announcer yells into the microphone as the spectators erupt into a roar of cheering.

* * *

After the match was over, Takami's name was recorded into their hall of fame and received his unique prize: A modification program in the form of a wristband, able to be used freely via voice command and not take up space on his digivice. Many of his new fans were eager to find him and beg for a trade of some sort, but he declined all offers. As he takes his leave of the area, a voice calls out for him.

"Hey! Wait up!" Takami looks around, wondering who would want him now. "Over here!" From the crowd, Sera finally squeezes through, her digivice clipped to her jeans. "You move really fast in a crowd, ya know."

"Oh, it's you again- Sera, was it? Yeah, I'm fast on my feet when I want to leave; it's kinda my thing." He smiles nervously, not entirely sure what she could possibly want. Revenge?A rivalry? "Is there something I can do for you?"

"Your Renamon –Ayame- she fights so differently from a usual Renamon, especially right before the match ended. I was dying to know just what you did to evade Life Gambit and how she turned her Power Paw into a ranged attack."

"I will admit she's very unique, coming up with stuff while in the middle of a fight. Sometimes she picks up on things I do or play, then applies it to a fight. Her Power Paw, for example, turned out to be a mistake. She used to pump too much energy into her hands and made them heavy, until she accidentally lunged too hard and part of the energy made a shockwave. As for that evasion move, I could hardly believe my own eyes…"

* * *

_Flashback to about 25 minutes ago (Yeah, I'm doing this.)_

Celes' attack was far too close for her to dodge, Ayame knew this much. She couldn't ready an attack powerful enough to counter it in time either. She needed some sort of escape mechanism, and fast! 'My clones could take the attack, maybe!' She thought as she uses Fox Shift Void to call forth her minion. But before the clone could even fully emerge, it took one of the stingers right in the stomach, the impact knocking it backwards into the rift, bringing Ayame with her. With a yelp, Ayame lands on what she assumed the floor inside her own dimension. Inside, it was indeed that: a void.

"What the…" Ayame questions as she stands, scratching her head as to where she was. It definitely wasn't the battlefield or anywhere she recognized. She meanders aimlessly in her own dimension, looking for some sort of portal back. "I wish I could at least see what I missed…" Suddenly, a large portal appears in front of her, showing a third-person view of the last few seconds of her match, including the collision of her and her clone.

"Well if I can access this place on a whim, I should be able to do it from the inside… right?" Ayame slashes at the air, expecting to rip another rift into the space. The only thing that happened was a whoosh from her swipe. "And… that failed." When she wanted to see how she got here, it was right in front of her, so there was at least _some _link between her void and her consciousness. 'Okay, so if I wasn't here right now, I'd like to give that annoying little bug a good smack on the back.' Her arm then takes its familiar glow of her Power Paw charging up and another rift opens in front of her, through it showing the opposite side of Celes from where she entered. Grinning at the opportunity, Ayame leaps out through her new rift to the confused digimon, giving her a firm slash on the back, sending her down into the ground, and winning the match after her little ordeal.

* * *

_Back to normal time_

"And that's how she saw the last few seconds of the match, although she said it felt a lot longer when in her rift. It may have happened as an accident, but at least she was able to make it look professional, right?" Takami laughs a bit, Sera joining in with him.

"So I guess we'll have to keep an eye on each other in the singles tournament, won't we?" She asks while twirling a strand of her hair around her index finger.

Ayame's right ear perks up from her choice of words, a small smirk spreading across her muzzle as she breaks free of a crowd from signing autographs. "Don't you mean an eye out _for_ each other?" Takami asks, not sure if she did that on purpose or just didn't think it through, causing Sera's face to take a light shade of pink.

"Right! Exactly what I mean! Just don't try to hold back on me if we face each other again."

Takami shakes his head just as Alacia squeezes through another crowd, using her digivice to locate her team members, finding Takami talking to someone. Not wanting to interrupt, she just awaits patiently from a distance, the bustling street too loud for her to eavesdrop on his conversation. "I'd be happy to watch all your matches, especially because I'm in the doubles tournament."

Sera's smile widens as Alacia's eyebrow arches, making assumptions based on their body language. "In that case I'll cheer extra hard for you _if _you do the same for me… um, actually I never caught your name."

"Takami, Takami Kusajiki. And I'll be happy to miss…" he trails of, hoping for her to finish the sentence.

"Sera Curiosi. My name is weird, I know…"

"I think its unique, and since when was being unique a bad thi-"

"THERE YOU ARE!" Alacia interjects quite loudly from behind Takami, making him straighten his posture from being startled. "Fraternizing with a possible enemy, I see. Good thing I found you before you said something stupid!" And with that, Takami is dragged away by the collar by Alacia towards the hotel of Falx's choice while Sera waves and giggles before embarking elsewhere into the vast city. Ayame follows behind her captive partner, smirking to herself, 'This city is full of fun things to watch~'

* * *

End of Chapter 25!

A/N:

It's been a while! But in the next chapter (expected before Christmas) expect the unexpected! :D And if none of you notice the one thing that's weird in this chapter, I'm doing something right.


	26. Corruption

In our last chapter of _Ayame's Chronicles_, Takami was deemed the victor of the King of the Hill tournament, claiming victory over his latest opponent, Sera. Now he resides within his hotel room with the rest of the Falx tamers on the night before the Qualifier rounds of the doubles tournament. Can't wait to turn some heads with this chapter :3

* * *

From their only full sized bathroom, Takami and Rua try to drown out their female companion's bickering over who gets the bathroom in the afternoon first by using various channels on the television, to no avail. The first 10 minutes of the argument were somewhat interesting, but quickly declined when they went into how intricate their hygiene methods were.

"I'm getting a headache…" Takami says while rubbing his temples and standing from the couch. "I need a drink..."

"Bring me back Sprite!" Rua yells over the female's argument and the monster truck rally that was currently being broadcasted.

Takami gives a brief nod before putting on his pair of jeans over his shorts he planned to sleep in, his digivice still clipped to the waistband. Firmly shutting the door behind him, he begins walking down the carpeted corridors of the hotel hall. Takami occasionally glances over the edge of the railing that lined the hollow center of the hotel, marveling just how 44 floors below him looked like. Shaking off the slight dizziness, he boards an elevator and systematically goes down each floor in search of the one machine that offered his absolute favorite drink in the world: root beer.

After many floors of searching, one machine that had been nearly emptied smiles down on his luck, offering both root beer and Sprite.

"Hooray! My prayers have been answered!" He quickly channels some of the bits from his digivice as instructed by Alacia for whenever he made a purchase and out comes the last root beer within the machine. He opens it and takes a precautionary sip from the can, as he always does when relishing some new beverage. The soda tasted similar to other brands he was fond of in the human world, but aside from the rich vanilla-y taste, the digital world version had a bit of something… new. As the liquid trickled down into his stomach, he felt more hype and eager to go out and seize the nightlife. "Quite some kick in such a small can, but I like it~."

"The drinks in the digital world always have that re-energizing taste to them, that's why tamers love them so much." Takami whips his head around to find the origin of the voice, finding none other than Sera smiling at him. She too was clad in her sleeping clothes consisting of a long silky negligee that extended from the center of her collarbone all the way down to her creamy-white thighs.

Nearly coughing up another sip he took, Takami holds back the light blush that threatened to light up his cheeks. "Sera! I didn't see you there! Nice outfit by the way."

"Well aren't you funny?" She giggles and pushes his shoulder lightly to the side, moving past him and holding up her own digivice for a beverage, only to frown when seeing her limited options. "Dammit, all the root beer is gone, **AGAIN**." With a loud sigh, her forehead comes to meet the picture of her most favorite beverage.

"Sorry, but I searched through 30 floors of vending machines to find it. Root beer is worth that much to me~" Takami smiles sheepishly as he takes another sip from his drink.

"I see… That girlfriend of yours doesn't keep the room stocked so you don't have to wander all by your lonesome?"

He nearly choked on the last sip he took, "Girlfriend? I think not! I am available-notice I didn't say single, that makes me sound more desperate- and free to go to wherever I please and speak to whoever I want!"

"Is that so?" Sera cocks an eyebrow with a smirk, "Well I just happen to be so _very_ single and would have felt bad about doing this until now~." She takes a slow step towards Takami.

His sudden steely nerves reverted back to the jelly she caused when showing up, "D-do… what?"

Sera says nothing and leans in close to him, Takami's cheeks red as a ripe apple. "This~" He closes his eyes and tries to prepare himself.

But no embrace came; no encounter of the flesh of a vivacious female. One eye slowly opens to see her finger tipping his root beer up some so she could waterfall off of it. Her face look extremely pleased to see him so wound up and her eyes were closed to relish the taste of her coveted drink.

"You little sneak!" The outburst of Takami startled Sera, causing her to flinch backwards, sending the remainder of their shared beverage spilling down the front of Takami's chest, sending shivers down his spine.

Sera eeps and extends a hand out towards him, unsure of how to immediately fix the spill, "I'msorryI'msorryI'msorry!"

"No, no… its fine, I'll just go to my room and change," Takami waves his hand, trying to calm her down while rifling through his pockets for something. "Now if only I could find that room key… that Suri had… in her bag- AW DAMMIT ALL TO HELL, I'm locked out…"

"Can't you just wash it or something?" Sera inquires, thinking of a possible solution.

"Well yeah, but I don't want to go to bed sticky either."

"I have an idea!" She smiles and takes a grip of Takami's wrist, whisking him down the hallway from where she came. "Just use my room, to shower and borrow a shirt."

"I guess- wait, what?"

* * *

Takami couldn't help but resemble a tomato in the face as he handed piece by piece of his outer clothing to Sera as he slowly undressed in her hotel room's bathroom. "You sure you can have them washed by the time I'm done?"

"Relax, I wash clothes all the time. And there's no need to be shy about it, you have a nice chest; don't try to hide it~" She giggles as he attempts to cover every last part of his body when he slammed the door shut, even though she could barely make out his facial expression.

* * *

30 minutes later

Takami emerges from Sera's bathroom with at least 3 towels secured around his body, making sure not an inch of skin showed more than usual. To his relief, a pair of clothes was lying folded on her dresser, minus one thing.

"Hey… where did she go?" He wastes no time in dressing himself and peeks around her apartment. The room key was still here, so she couldn't have gotten out… He inches toward the window for a peek outside before-

"TAKAMI!" A female voice chirps to grab his attention, causing his foot to bang against the radiator in reflex.

"OW… What is it Ayame?" He groans while rubbing his shin, picking up his digivice, nearly forgetting he brought it with him.

"Let me out, there's something not right…"

Ayame's behavior was strange, even for her, so Takami holds out his digivice to release her. Her ears were pointed back and her eyes shifting very slowly around the room. "Well? What's up?"

"I sense a digimon nearby… and not a friendly DATS one either…" Her ears flick as she growls lowly. Even her fur was standing on end.

'What's with her? I've never seen her so riled up like this.' "That's impossible. We're in the middle of a huge city full of DATS surveillance and security. How could anything get in or out without setting off an alarm?"

"I'll let you two ponder that while I dust you from the face of this earth," said a deep malevolent voice said, malice dripping off the end of his statement.

Takami whips his head around to face the room's door, "IT CAN'T BE! YOU CAN'T HAVE POSSIBLY-"

"**Nightmare wing**!" A blast of wind and dark energy launches the door off its hinges, knocking Takami back with it, slamming him into a wall. Clenching his teeth and gripping his chest, Takami glares up at an old relative of Falx: The Devimon that got away. "What's with that look, boy? You almost look unhappy to see me~"

"Takami, we need to get to an open area!" Ayame yells as she grabs his shirt, launches a Diamond Storm at the window and leaping out of it to a fire escape below. Devimon laughs as he emerges out of the hole Ayame made, floating down to the ground.

Before descending any further, Takami activates his Aegis and lands on the ground with the impact to shatter the sidewalk under him, Ayame teleporting to his side. "How did you get in here?" Takami barks at him, "And what did you do to Sera?"

Devimon puts a hand to his forehead as he shakes his head, "You've got your priorities all mixed up, boy. Instead of wondering _how_ I got in here, why not wonder _why_ I'm here?"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Ayame growls while flexing her claws, ready to strike whenever he made even a half-movement towards her partner.

"I come bearing a gift for you," the fallen angel's long arms extend out, tearing a rip within the air, just like when he made his escape from Rua, but had no intention of leaving this early. The rift seemed to stretch and distort, as if something were trying to wriggle its way through… "From the lovely Dark Area, let's all greet Devidramon and friends!" The rift then bursts open to release a deluge of Devidramon into the air, at least 20 of them making it out of the tear within the first 3 seconds. They circle the city high above while two linger next to Devimon, eyeing Takami and Ayame intently. "If you expect to save even a pebble of what's left of this city, I'd hurry if I were-"

Devimon is cut off by one of the Devidramon being knocked several decameters back, followed by an aggressive 'Digi-Soul: Charge!' Kyuubimon stands in front of her tamer as her tails flare out. "I'm pretty sure I can rip through a couple of small fry like Devidramon. So what's the real goal here?"

"So eager and feisty, you two are. You wanna know why they're here?" He saunters over to the Devidramon Takami just knocked back, it barely being up on its feet. "Nightmare Claw!" A quick swipe across its torso quickly ends the minion's existence. Instead of disappearing into data as usual, the data pulses outward. The pulse itself makes Ayame wince when it approaches, but no physical damage is apparent, even to the surrounding buildings.

"Is that all?" Takami asks, hoping that Devimon's example was just a mistake.

"Why not find out for yourself? Go, Devidramon!" The dark lizard roars as it charges at Ayame with a Crimson Claw charged up.

"Not even in the same league! Koshugeki!" Ayame charges back at the lizard, releasing a burst of her own kitsune energy, knocking it back before following up with a Dragon Wheel, ending it almost as quickly as it started. The same pulse bursts out from the fallen Devidramon, this time causing Ayame to shiver. "What was that?"

"That was just a glimpse of the raw energy in the Dark Area. All of the Devidramon who came here were nice and full on it and whenever they're destroyed, it spreads out. And the best part about residing in the Dark Area is that the corrupting energies don't hurt me~ But for all of you out here, who knows what'll happen when you digivolve?" Devimon shrugs as he looks upward at a Devidramon being attacked on the roof of the hotel they were previously in.

Ayame squints up at the assaulter, "Hey isn't that… Dalc? But there's something funny looking about him…"

Far above the ground, Suri watches as her partner violently mauls and swipes at the demented dragon. She felt something was wrong with Dalc the moment he digivolved to champion earlier with a face mask that didn't used to be there. Next to her was an unconscious Sera, who had been rescued a few moments earlier. "Metal Cast!" DexDorugamon roars as his arms launch into Devidramon's chest, clawing its way to the very center before ravenously devouring its core. More of the Dark Area's energy pulses from Dalc's mouth as he roars, soaring higher for another meal.

"What did you do to him?" Ayame yells toward Devimon, who only laughs as a retort.  
"Nothing at all! Just giving him a _taste_ of the dark side. And it's safe to say that he likes it, just like all the others who have defeated these lovely carriers around the town."

Takami gulps as he runs over his options within his head. He could either let Ayame turn into Taomon and try to cleanse the digimon of the excess energy, but run the risk of being corrupted herself. Fighting would only make it worse, yet not fighting would doom the city. 'What do I do...?'

* * *

End of chapter 26

a/n

Annnnnnnnnnd that's where I'm cutting it off for now :D no more chapters til 2012. But I wonder something about this chapter. What's the title referencing anyways? Who knows? **I DO.** So sit and watch to see what's gonna happen next.

Editor: Well, it issss called corruption, and Dalc is being corrupted, along with whatever else is corrupted by this dark power. The title itself seems to be explained in the chapter, but why do I feel like there's more to it?

Me: Because you know better than to assume that's all that happened.


	27. Calamity

Last time in _Ayame's Chronicles,_ Sybek City came under siege of Devidramon lead by Devimon. Dalc and Ayame spring into action of defeating some, but upon defeating each one, they released a malevolent surge of Dark Area energy from within their bodies, slowly corrupting digimon within the surrounding area. In fact, Dalc had taken in so much that his champion switch into DexDorugamon! Can they wriggle their way out of this one? Who knows (I DO :D). Let's read on.

* * *

Devimon laughs heartily as he notes Takami's apparent confliction. "What's the matter, boy? Lost your nerve? All you have to do is destroy these pesky Devidramon and all shall be well, that is… if you like living in a Dark Area Infested city. I personally think the place could use a touch of black… and despair."

Ayame growls as she bares her fangs, "Tell us how to stop this!"

Devimon's smile actually slips into a look of confusion. "You…you're serious? You're seriously asking the bad guy how to stop his doomsday plan? Why in the hell would I disclose that information? That's just some stupid plot device that gives the small fries a way out of what else would be a bad situation!" He puts his hand to his head and shakes it, "And to answer your question: I have no clue. Now I'm going to leave before you figure something out."

Quickly, Ayame charges up a Dragon Wheel and fires it at the smug angel, but the attack is swiftly evaded by him taking flight. His claws grow as he rips a rift into the air. "And just to re-emphasize how screwed you all are, I'm going to release the seal on the Devidramon. Didn't want any of that energy leaking out before we got here, but now, I'd love for it to~" With a sinister laugh, he steps into his portal, snapping is fingers behind him. The rift closes and the effect is almost immediately noticeable. A nearby Devidramon freezes where it was ravaging a car at, then a black translucent bubble forms around it, extending about ten feet from its body before dissipating. Ayame shudders slightly, being able to feel the Dark Area pulsing away from it and turns to her partner. "We have got to fix this, the sooner the better. Any suggestions from your 4Kid gods?"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? And its possible that as Taomon you could use your Talismans of Light to seal them off like the time you fought WaruSeadramon. But I don't want to- GUH!" His sentence is cut short by the Devidramon mentioned before slamming its tail into Takami's stomach, sending him flying down the street. Before Devidramon can even turn its head, it was engulfed by blue fireballs rushing at it, quickly being disposed of by Ayame's Foxtail Inferno.

'Another one down, only the rest of the city to go... But what am I supposed to do…? If I fight, I could end up like Dalc, or worse… But if I don't fight, there's no way this city can last an attack from so many digimon.' Ayame's jaw clenches as she looks over at her recovering tamer, hearing him cough as he catches his breath from nearly having his chest collapsed. 'Forgive me, Taka… If I were to become corrupted like Dalc, I'll see you again when I hatch.'

Takami gets to his feet slowly, shaking off the hit and looks around until his attention is drawn downward. His pocket was glowing from his digivice, which had a flashing screen of 'Initiating auto-Matrix Digivolution'. This was a rare sight to see, due to most digimon who had partners having a hard enough time digivolving on their own will to champion, let alone an Ultimate. Fear set into his mind, instantly jumping to the worst possible outcome- losing his own partner. "Ayame, wait!" He terminates the sequence right before her Digivolution begun, causing her to whip her head back at him.

"What did you stop me for? How can we possibly hope of defeating any of them if I'm still just Kyubimon? I need more power in order to wipe them off the face of this earth!" It may have taken her a second, but Ayame noticed that she was actually showing her fangs toward her only partner and immediately softened her appearance. Her ears tuck behind her head as she lets out a deep breath. 'Why did I do that…? He's my partner, not my enemy! Is this dark energy getting to me already…?'

"Do you even hear yourself? Since when do you talk about getting power to destroy things?" He walks over to her, putting his hand on her head to show that he forgave her outburst. "But I can't risk losing you if something goes wrong…"

"I'd say that sounds awfully selfish of you," a mysterious voice comments from behind Takami. The owner of it being none other than Naoe himself, the man he passed by earlier in the day, "So you'd rather keep your single life rather than try and preserve hundreds?"

Takami frowns and clenches his fist, "What do you know anyways? Would you put your own partner, one who trusts their very life with them, at risk to this…Dark Area energy or whatever?"

"Actually, yes; yes, I would." From his response, a large quadruped leaps off a nearby building after ramming a Devidramon through the chest with its pointed horn. "Quilinmon here has a Virus Buster attribute, something special I won from my King of the Hill challenge. You received a modification from winning as well, did you not?"

Takami's anger slips from here as he thinks back to his fiddling of the prize, never even bothering to check what it actually did. "Well… Yeah, I got something, but I never looked into it."

Naoe walks toward Takami and pats his shoulder gently, "It's okay to be apprehensive when your partner is in danger, but let's not lose our cool in the heat of the moment. Now, if you use that modification when your digimon evolves, it'll be a Virus Buster along with its other attributes, which is what would counter the Dark Area energy all around us. So by all means, let her digivolve, you won't be disappointed."

Takami looks down at his digivice, clenching his teeth together as he pulls up the modification, hoping that Naoe knew what he was talking about. "Well? What are you going to do Takami?" Ayame asks while looking at his digivice, then up to his face.

"I'd make up my mind quickly, here come some more." Naoe adds as his Qilinmon leaps from beside him to charge at a group of 5 Devidramon. Within their soon to be colliding paths was an injured Kiwimon, who could do nothing aside from watch as the two groups closed in, unable to move due to a sustained injury from fighting its way through the streets.

'Dammit…!' Takami says to himself, his fist clenching as he rolls through his options. The nearest Devidramon nears the fallen avian, its gargantuan foot hovering over its body. Kiwimon's eyes shut tight as it comes down, but after a second of waiting, it felt no crushing blow to its body. Instead, all it heard was a grunt of effort and the roar of a Devidramon. The source of it being none other than Takami ramming his fist into the chest of the charging creature, generating enough force to knock it backwards several yards.

Naoe's eyes squint when realizing that Takami had moved from his digimon and passed his own. 'He's fast…?'

A smirk spreads along Ayame's face, glad that her partner had finally made a decision. "Digi-soul: Full Charge!" The familiar blast of energy shoots outs of Takami's digivice and engulfs his foxy companion. However, Ayame's Digivolution sphere altered in color from the usual blue to a swirl of blue and white, due to the Virus Buster program altering her usual digivolution. Within her sphere, she takes the shape of her ultimate form, Taomon, but with a few… variations. First off, her robes didn't hang off her arms and legs like flowing robes and instead were more of a raiment, now hugging to her muscular figure quite a bit more. Her leggings were also instead a pure white instead of purple and she lacked a brush of any kind. Once she emerges from her shell, it was as if Takami and Naoe could literally feel the purifying light of her new form purging the area around them.

"I… I did it! And no corruption in me either!" Ayame says while looking down at her new form. She flexes her paw-hands a few times before looking up at the Devidramon, who can't help but stare at her. "And now I can fight without having to hold back~" With a quick shifting of the feet, the new and improved Taomon dashes at the Devidramon, her movements barely traceable to even Qilinmon.

Between the time she started her dash and reaching her first target, both of Ayame's arms spawned a strange looking weapon on the side. At first they appeared like a bat'leth, but the blade was straight and had only one place to grip towards the top. The blades themselves seemed to radiate with the purifying aura of a Virus Buster, making the cleaving of the first two Devidramon seem sleek and effortless.

"I think I am going to like this program…" Takami says with a grin, already looking forward to how well Ayame will perform in her new form.

* * *

Many streets later, Naoe and Takami advance through the hordes of flying devils towards the center of the city, where a large number of Devidramon were still clustered around. However, there was one thing that none of the four considered while they were fighting…

"Is that all you got, Qilinmon? You'll never keep up at that rate!" Ayame yells back as she wiggles one of her blades free from an impaled Devidramon.

"Don't get ahead of yourself! Knowledge of-" Qilinmon's eyes widen as he fumbles in his steps. Before even finishing his attack, he is enveloped in a digivolution sphere, reverting him _back_ to his rookie form, Kudamon. "What the… Naoe, what happened? I was doing fine just a few seconds ago!" When he whips his head back, he finds not only his partner, but Takami also hunched over, leaning on their knees for support. They both looked as if they had run a 20 mile marathon!

"Taka-" Ayame's voice changes from the smooth voice of Taomon back into her rookie form, "mi, what's wrong- huh? Why did I change back?"

Naoe tries to stand up straight and takes out his digivice, his hand quivering as he does. "I-I don't know… this Dark Area energy must affect humans as well as digimon...! I feel completely wiped!"

Takami huffs before looking up at Ayame, who had run over to help him up. "My digi-soul tank feels like its running on 'E' right about now… And without any fuel, we can't maintain your forms…"

"In short, we are screwed now," Kudamon adds while looking towards the ground. "Is this really the end of this city already?"

"I'm not sure… but I don't think this is over yet. Something is coming… and it feels out-of-this-world strong!" Ayame's ears point back as her eyes search the skies for anything other than the enemy.

"Even with all of this, that damn Devimon calls in MORE reinforcements? This pretty much qualifies as overkill!" Naoe yells, wondering what was approaching.

Their questions were soon put to rest as a large digital portal opens high in the sky, along with a humanoid figure flying out of it. Its purple wings were nearly invisible when looking up from the ground into the dark sky, but its white and gold trimmed armor was clearly able to be made out. Kudamon blinks a few times in disbelief. "Is that… No way, it can't be! Why would Dynasmon of all digimon, come way out here?"

"Wait, Dynasmon as in Royal Knight Dynasmon?" Naoe questions, unable to see the figure clearly.

"There's no mistaking it, that's him up there. But I'm lost as to why he would be out here instead of the Sky Terrace…"

After gliding through the air for a bit, Dynasmon lands in the center of the city with the group of four. "You honestly don't think that Robust- ranked DATS members would just sit by as an infestation like this breaks out, do you?" He asks while looking down at them. "But I'll be done in a bit, just give me a moment." He takes flight once again, soaring high into a swirling group of Devidramon. The virus types kept their distance from the all-powerful mega, knowing good and well that it could easily wipe them out.

The majestic knight in white crosses his arms over his chest while his entire body starts emanating a harsh silver light, a sign of his most powerful attack. As he charged it, the Dark Area energy throughout the city was starting to be siphoned toward him instead of lingering in the air to the point of where it contrasted the light coming from Dynasmon. Once he had gathered the malefic energy and was positive he had it all, he releases it in the form of his strongest attack, "Breath of Wyvern!" The collected energy along with his own mix together and form a giant nameless wyvern around Dynasmon before he launches it. Its powerful wing beats built up a high amount of speed, allowing it to engulf even the fleeing Devidramon, destroying them fully upon contact and collecting the excess Dark Area energy that leaked out, making itself even more powerful.

Ayame watched in awe as the knight before her took out so many enemies with so little effort. It would have taken over an hour to do what he could in a few seconds. Once every last Devidramon had been terminated and its energy stored within Dynasmon's attack, the wyvern returns to him and condenses itself into a small orb. He grabs hold of and descends back down to Takami's group. "Sorry to be in and out so quick, but that portal up there has a time limit. The Sky Terrace is so secure that even access out of it is limited. Do be more careful about what you let into this city or else who knows what would happen." They all nod at him before he turns his gaze up to the sky, flying back to his portal. However, no one had accounted for the sudden upset that would flip the tables once again!

Right as Dynasmon started crossing through his portal, a mysterious figure swoops by his hand, knocking the orb from his grip. Startled, he halted his ascent and tried to turn back for it, only to have the portal close in his face. "What the hell is that thing?" Naoe asks as he points to the purple beast flapping its wings as it dives for the falling orb of condensed energy.

"Hey Takami, what ever happened to Dalc once we left…?" Ayame questions, turning to her partner, already having a good idea of what it was.

"Oh boy…" Takami says quietly as the DexDorugamon formerly known as Dalc catches up with the falling essence of both light and darkness. Once Dalc caught up with it, he did the worst thing any of them could possibly imagine- he ate it.

Dalc starts writhing in the air as his body tries to cope with the influx of both positive and negative energy simultaneously. It looked as if the energy itself was trying to reject Dalc's body before a large sphere surrounds him. But not just any sphere, a digivolution sphere…

* * *

End of chapter 27!

A/N: That took forever to come up with, but I know where this is going, how it'll end, and how it'll begin again. Stay tuned for the next chapter that shall be posted…EVENTUALLY!


	28. Conclusion

Last time in _Ayame's Chronicles_, Takami, with the aid of Naoe, was able to fight of some of the invasive Devidramon within the city and even managed to try out digivolving, despite the risks of corrupting his partner with the dreaded Dark Area energy floating around. Not only did Ayame digivolve with no repercussions, she was also able to obtain a new form! But inevitably the two were severely worn down due to the two young tamers becoming fatigued, causing their partners to revert to their rookies. They get their bacon saved when a Dynasmon descends from the Sky Terrace, home to legendary tamers from around the world. Dynasmon used his strongest attack to not only wipe out all the devidramon but also cleanse the city of the dark energy they left around. However, before Dynasmon could return to the digital world to dispose of it, Dalc as DexDorugamon swipes it from his clutches and consumes it! What in the sweet hell is about to break loose? Find out below! And for god's sake, leave a review!

* * *

The ever-growing digivolution sphere did not exactly inspire happy wishes and hope within the onlookers below in the city. Takami stares in disbelief, stunned that Dalc would even try something so dangerous. Eventually the cocoon extended its reach from the ground of a few leveled buildings to even higher than a few skyscrapers! The first fissure travels down along the side, signaling whatever was inside it was ready to make its debut…

From within, two large shredded black wings jet out from the side. The insides were a dark purple and the wingtips seemed to have claws on them. Ayame's ears point back as she fears for the worst. "He couldn't possibly have gone that far… not with that energy. Unless it was even more powerful than I could imagine…"

"Ayame!" Takami calls over to his partner to get her attention. "What the hell is in that thing? Why did Dalc grow so much?! Ultimate level digimon aren't that big!"

"Of course they aren't. That's why he isn't an ultimate." Naoe grimaces to answer Takami partially. "He's a mega."

From his digivolution sphere bursts out none other than Dalc, but not as a DexDorugamon. Not even a DexDoruGreymon. He somehow shot all the way up to the virus version of his line: DexDoruGoramon. The sight was unimaginably terrifying; half due to a champion warp digivolving to a mega, and half because he grew so much bigger to go on a rampage. His roar echoes out through the city, shattering most windows that weren't already destroyed. His powerful wings flap awkwardly in the air, as if trying to figure out how they worked, all the while kicking up massive gusts of wind that sweep through the streets, tossing debris, digimon, and tamers every which way.

"AS IF THIS NIGHT WASN'T BAD ENOUGH!" Takami has to yell at the top of his lungs to be heard over the howling wind. "What do we do now?!"

"We have to somehow purify that digimon from this corrupted form, and fast. It doesn't even look stable! Megas aren't supposed to exceed their sizes unless they're just begging for their data to collapse within itself!" Naoe explains. "But I have NO clue where to start. However, if we could find its digicore, you could strike it with a Virus Buster-related attack and that should sever the bond between the corrupted data and the Dorumon it has a hold on. We don't have time to wait for our digi-soul to recharge though, so we need to find a DS drink somewhere."

"Where would they be at a time like this?" Takami asks while turning to him.

"In a vending machine, preferably one that wasn't smashed to pieces, so let's get to looking for one. Though it may be kind of difficult while playing Dodge-car/street sign/rock…" The four of them immediately get to work, rummaging through any kind of disheveled machine that came their way until Kudamon held a slightly dented can up with his tail and tossed it over to Takami. With a quick swig of a tamer's reinvigorating elixir, it was as if he had just taken every last energy drink he could have possibly imagined all at once!

"Alright, let's try this again!" Ayame starts running at their gargantuan target, ready and willing to receive the burst of evolutionary energy from her partner. "Digi-soul, Full Charge!" Not even bothering with her champion form, Ayame goes straight to her new version of Taomon, donning the coveted Virus Buster attribute to the fullest. Rapid footsteps propel the vixen through the streets, easily dodging any obstacles or additional debris that tried to impede her path, each step being aided by the strong claws lining her toes.

Unaware of the charging opposition that is bolting towards him, Dalc flexes one of his claws and takes a swipe at an undamaged building, only to have his hand shatter along with the bricks of cement. Ayame takes the spontaneous avalanche as an opportunity to close a lot of distance, vaulting from rock to rock and eventually making her way onto his arm. 'Now if I remember correctly, big mega digimon have some spot on their armor that shields their core… That bulging protrusion on his chest looks promising.' Working her way up DexDorugoramon's arm, another leap brings her just over an abnormal bulge on Dalc's chest. Her two blades sink in deep with a powerful slam.

Her strike must have been more effective than she thought, as it had caused a deluge of pent up energy to explode out, launching her and her blades back to her tamer at a near-mach speed, creating quite the crater with her back. "Damn, that hurt… No matter how strong you are, getting slammed into the ground still hurts- …Huh?" DexDorugoramon lets out a louder roar than usual in agony, the absorbed energy spilling out into the air; however, Ayame noticed something else about it. She could have sworn she saw the image of Dalc taking the same stance as his vile mega. It clearly expresses its anguish right before it disappeared, as if it were a fleeting dream. "Dalc…?"

"Ayame, get it together! You've already gotten a good hit on him!" Takami yells over to his partner, a bit puzzled as to why she seemed to be staring off into space. Taomon shakes it off and leaps up to re-engage her target, the image of Dalc still burning in the back of her mind. Fighting her way toward the fractured zone once again, Ayame lands another strike, this time shattering the only barrier between the outside world and DexDorugoramon's digi-core. Suddenly, the world goes silent and time seems to slow down.

The very moment her eyes set on Dalc's digi-core, it looked as if there was an image of Dorumon trapped in a sphere of swirling silver and black thrashing erratically. Ayame's eyes go wide as she has a revelation, 'I… I'm-… I'm hurting Dalc…! How could I hurt one of my teammates – my friend?!' DexDorugoramon can feel it's most sensitive area being exposed and releases another burst of energy, returning Ayame to her cozy crater near Takami.

"Alright, just one more attack and he'll be down for the count!" Her partner cheers as she gets out of the deep crater, clenching her teeth as she rises to her feet once again.

"How can you sound so happy about that?!" Ayame snaps at Takami, surprising both him along with Naoe and Kudamon. "Every time I have to cut into … that THING'S chest, I'm hurting Dalc as well! How am I supposed to deal with having to slowly kill my friend?!" It was clear that she was stifling the sadness of her reality, "Every stab, every slash, every laceration; Dalc can feel each one! He is conscious of what's going on right now, yet we are helpless as to save him without hurting him further!"

"HOW CAN YOU BE SO SOFT-HEARTED?!" Naoe yells at Ayame, causing her to gasp from his abrasiveness, "You are a member of DATS! Not everything can be as easy as defeating the incarnation of evil and saving a little village! Our job as DATS members is to defend the innocent to the best of our ability, no matter what! Are you willing to just let thousands of people in this city just because your friend is on a rampage?"

"Of course I'm not! I want to save everyone without losing anyone…" With that, Ayame falls to her knees, dropping her weapons down into the process, having lost the will to fight.

"You are very green behind the ears for a digimon… And you!" Naoe now turns to Takami, who watches on a bit dazed from the situation, "Why are you so silent?! Say something to your digimon and get your priorities in line!"

Ayame's conflicting emotions weren't unique to only her; her partner's mind had been scrambled from her realization. For the first time in whoever knows how long, Takami had absolutely no idea what he should do next. The burning passion to save the city had been drenched with guilt of having to slay one of his comrades and due to her emotional discomfort, Ayame de-digivolves to her rookie once again, still sobbing while on her knees.

'Damn it all to hell, these two are falling apart at the seams!' Naoe grunts in frustration before turning to his partner. "What are our other options, Kudamon?"

"Well sir that last strike seemed to have done more than we thought. Look up there!" Kudamon's nose points up to DexDorugoramon's core, energy billowing out of his chest as he falls to his knees, unable to hold all of his core energy in without his chest cavity intact. Soon afterwards, Dalc starts to shrink, de-digivolving back into his champion form, condensing all of that energy into a much smaller core to maintain it. "He has reverted to his champion form! But his body will eventually reject that energy…"

"That thing has to either be defeated or get the hell out of here. I don't want to become a part of the landscape because these two are half-hearted and can't follow through. Think you can take him on as a rookie?"

"I can try but- wait, who the hell is that?!" Kudamon's bewilderment rooting off of what seemed to be a person running toward Dalc. It was definitely a person, female, rather short… "Some girl is screaming her head off over there… Going on about 'Dalc! Dalc! Dalc!' What on earth is she thinking?!"

Takami's mind reels back, 'A girl screaming to Dalc? Please don't be Suri, please don't be Suri… please don't be Suri…' Lo and behold, it was none other than one of Falx's female members running up to her partner, thinking he had returned to normal. Little did she know that all of the negative energy was still corrupting his mind, just begging for some sort of target.

"Dalc! Are you okay?! You had me so worried! I'm glad you're back to normal now…" Upon getting close enough, Suri could now clearly tell that Dalc was NOT back to normal. He was indeed still DexDorugamon, but his eyes weren't scanning around wildly, they seemed focused on one and only one thing: her. She takes a few steps back, her mind racing as to what would happen next. Dalc takes a few steps toward her to match whenever she takes one back. Suddenly, his wings flap and launch him at her, sending her flying back and sliding onto her back.

Before she could even cry out in pain, his clawed foot dug into her aegis, just barely breaking past her pale skin along her collarbone, pinning her down. "Dalc, no…" She tries in vein to lift his foot off as he charges up a Power Metal directly over her head, preparing to unleash every bit of pent up energy onto his partner's face. Bigger and bigger the sphere grew before his eyes widened. Suri flinches and jerks her head to the side, thinking he fired. Everything then went black in her mind followed by an eerie silence. 'Is this what it's like to lose my life? I… I can't feel anything! Everything feels so heavy, yet I'm swimming in something… Did Dalc make me drown in a pool of my own blood...?'

There was no feeling of any sort of obliterating impact, no pain aside from his claws and no noise. However, she did feel something warm dripping onto her forehead. It turns out she temporarily passed out and peeks out of one eye to see what just went down, only to have another drop hit her on the cheek. Her lips quivering as a pointed blade is only centimeters from her chin, Dalc's body holding most of it within him. At the other end of the sword was none other than the shaking hands of the leader of Falx- Takami.

Shock and dread were the understatements of the century from what Suri was thinking as the realization hit her: not only did her digimon nearly kill her, but now his blood is staining her pale, perspiring face. She couldn't even manage to let out a scream as Takami slowly withdrew his Aegis-spawned sword from the ex-rampaging beast formerly known as Dalc.

Dalc took a few stumbling steps forward leaving behind a thin trail of his liquid of life, tainting the broken pavement with a dark crimson hue. A few meters away from Takami and Suri, he collapses appearing lifeless for a few seconds before glowing, reverting himself into 3 separate glowing energies; one belonging to Dynasmon's Breath of Wyvern, another to the condensed Dark Area energy, and the final being Dalc's digi-egg. Nearly tripping over every last outcrop, Suri hurries over to cradle her partner's egg, not expecting what happened next. Her eyes widened, and she felt something bubble in her soul. It rose to her throat and she intended to scream. Nothing but squeaks and sounds that could barely pass for whispers issued forth. As her failure to express her agony passed tears stung her eyes.

It shattered. Millions and millions of bits scatter into the wind, taking away the only bit of Dalc Suri had left. And then the wails of sadness, confusion and agony burst from the grief stricken tamer. "No… This can't be happening," she mouths, but her voice is still disabled out of shock.

Takami turns to her, shaken, arms open to embrace her while advancing towards her. He wanted to comfort her and almost more than that, he wanted to comfort himself and feel some semblance of justification for the sin he committed. Suri does nothing, makes no movements. He holds her. Whatever relief he got from that moment was shoved away, both figuratively, and realistically. Suri's hand had struck him square in the sternum, causing him to fall backwards in shock. Suri's eyes were distant, along with her mind. She was not looking at Takami, but all the same as she began to move her mouth, he knew her next words were intended for him. It was slightly above a whisper, but Takami could hear it as loud as a scream. It echoed in his head. He turned away, because at the moment he couldn't even face Suri. Just like a cowboy burning his insignia on a cow, the single word stung him and he knew it would stay with him forever.

The single word-

"Murderer…"

* * *

Several days later, the hospital of the shattered city is slowly thinning out, most of the residents finally exiting out of intensive care and released back to their local DATS locations. Takami sat upright in a chair of a near-vacant hallway, the only sounds being a nurse's shoes clacking on the floor while the squeaky wheels of a cart turned a corner or entered someone's room to deliver food. He hadn't left that chair for hours, not ever since Suri refused to even hear his name, let alone see him while recovering in her room. Falx was in tatters; Rua felt absolutely helpless, being stuck in his hotel room after a Devidramon crashed in and nearly collapsed their floor. He was probably the worst off, minus Suri. Rua had convinced himself that Takami could have made some sort of choice that could have saved a lot more lives sooner, including Dalc's, as well as refusing to accept that Takami and Ayame did their absolute best to try and advert the outcome. Both Suri and Rua banded together on the idea that their so-called "leader" was as useless as they were, ostracizing him from their conversations.

Alacia tried in vain to bridge the broken relationship between the three, unable to help Suri and Rua calm down enough and see that the night could have ended even worse. She was attacked with comments such as 'What if it were YOUR digimon?!' or 'I'm sure you would think that, since you didn't even get a scratch on you…' Hikari was at a loss of what they could try, not knowing the extensive backgrounds of the three disagreeing tamers. The entire conversation blew up and ended as Takami stormed out of his room and down the hall, Ayame following behind him and trying to tend to his needs.

He didn't eat. He didn't speak. He hardly moved, aside from his head leaning onto the wall when he fell asleep. The first time he stirred was late in the night before Falx was scheduled to return to their camp. Takami had returned to his room to pack up his bag and Aegis then went to tinkering with his digivice. Ayame noticed a lamp on in his room and poked her head in.

"Takami? What are you doing up so late?"

Takami's bloodshot eyes stare blankly at his digivice, finishing what task he had set out to do. "Just messing with my digivice. I disabled the channel connecting it with the Digital Dive lab back at camp." With that, he picked up his bag and walked past Ayame, as if it were no big deal.

"Wha… Why would you do that of all things?! How would you get back if they don't know where you-"

"I'm not going back. There's no point in it," Takami responded quickly, "My half my team is refusing to have anything to do with me, one of them is dead and I have absolutely no idea of how to fix all of this… It wasn't supposed to be like this, Ayame… Just over a month ago, I found you outside at school. Things just progressed so… fast." He continues walking down the hallway and to the stairs. "I am leaving. Not sure where I am going or when I will get there, but I am going somewhere- somewhere where I can learn what it's like to be a leader. But until then, I don't have the right to even show my face to Falx… Take care of them while I'm gone, okay?"

Ayame's tail around his waist impaired his movement. "And how do you expect me to do that while I'm with you? I am not just a member of Falx, I am your partner, Takami." Her arms soon join her tail around him while her chin rests on his shoulder. "I won't leave your side. You are a natural leader, but you need fine tuning. How can you lead if no one is following you?"

Takami only grunted quietly, probably happy that someone didn't think he was a complete lost cause because of this event and keeps on walking, but at a much slower pace, one that Ayame could keep up with, setting off into the night without so much as an explanation to anyone, aside from an eavesdropping nurse in a partially cracked door who delivered the information to what was formerly known as Falx far too late. Takami and Ayame were already long gone past the outskirts of Sybek, never to be heard of until further notice.

As they trekked through the darkness, Ayame looked longingly at the back of her partner's head, thinking back to the expression on his face before they left.

'Oh Takami… I didn't know your passionate flame could be extinguished so abruptly… I hope someday I can look into those eyes of yours once again and see more than just a cold stare…'

* * *

End of Chapter 28

A/N:

And there you have it. The concluding chapter of _Ayame's Chronicles._ Now it has come a long long way from 3 years ago. Like it or not, this is how it is. If you are curious of what comes next, then there will be a sequel to _Ayame's Chronicles_ and a post shall direct you to the new title, new plot and the follow up of all the old characters we've come to love (or hate…) in these 29 or so posts.

Stay tuned.


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